Random Recipe: Chicken & Dumplings

I made this last Monday on a blustery spring day. It's so tasty and easy! I really love chicken pot pie, but it always takes too long and makes a mess. This is close enough for me to be happy and it only takes 1 cutting board, 1 knife, 1 bowl, some spoons, and 1 pot! What I also love about this is that you don't have to prep everything. While the butter is melting you can chop, while you are bringing everything to a boil you can cut your chicken, while the chicken is cooking you can make your dumplings, and while your dumplings are cooking you can cleanup! It makes just enough for the three of us for dinner so you might want to double it if you have a bigger family. I haven't tried doubling it so if it doesn't work it's not my fault! Please read the whole recipe before beginning.

• Melt 3 tablespoons butter over medium heat in a large dutch oven
• Coarsely chop 1 medium onion & 5 carrots. Place in pan. Add 1/2 teaspoon dried OR 1 teaspoon fresh thyme. Cook until onion is translucent
• Whisk in 1/4 cup all purpose flour for a minute (this allows the flour to cook a little)
• Whisk in 1 3/4 cups chicken stock/broth and bring to a boil
• Add about 3 chicken breasts or thighs cut into bite size pieces, cover and reduce to simmer
• In a small bowl stir together 3/4 cup all purpose flour, 1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder, & 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Add 1/2 cup milk and stir only until incorporated, it will be very sticky!
• When chicken is cooked stir in about 1 cup frozen vegetables (I used corn and green beans). If you want to use fresh you would probably want to add them with the chicken.
• Drop dumpling mixture on top of chicken mixture using two spoons (scoop it onto one spoon and use the other to push it off). I wanted small dumplings so I used tiny kid's spoons (the tiny ones in the IKEA set). Just make a nice topping leaving space in between because they will puff up. I only ended up using half of the dumpling mixture so I put the other half onto wax paper on a baking sheet and put them in the freezer until they were hard and then into a freezer bag. I'm hoping that next time I can just plop them in frozen and have one less step!