Chicken n' Dumplins: Nourish the body & the spirit

"Fervet olla, vivit amicitia. --While the pot boils, friendship endures." -Latin Proverb

Uncle George (one of Aunt Mattie's younger brothers) was a large, jovial man with a big, booming voice, a hearty laugh, and a talent for cooking. His signature dish, and one of my all-time favorites, was his stellar pot of chicken n' dumplins. Southerns have long been known for their love affair with food, but I would add that it's not just the favorite foods particularly from our childhood that we love, so much as it's the happy memories they invoke within us of simpler times, simple pleasures, and the people who cooked for us with love. For me, when I think of his chicken n' dumplins, I recall large Hill family gatherings, children's laughter as cousins ran and played together in the yard, bare feet, and sitting with a plate of food in the cool grass with the grown-ups close by swapping stories about their own childhood. With all of the Hill children, who were the great-aunts and uncles of my youth, now gone, I wish I could capture those moments and re-tell their happiest tales. While the ghost of those stories still lingers in my mind, the details are fractured and out of focus. The taste, however, of tender chicken, buttery broth, and  smooth, rich, paper-thin dumplin's remains a vivid memory to my palate. Below is his famous recipe, which I am sharing with you in the hope that you will recreate it for those you love and inspire new memories, good memories! Bon appetit!

George Hill's Chicken n' Dumplins

Boil a whole chicken in a large stock pot with bacon fat or fried fat back, salt, pepper and accent. While the chicken is cooking, make a thickening. Thickening: Fill a large glass 1/4 way full with flour and then add milk to the top of the glass. Mix well and set aside.

Make dumplins: Using about 4 cups of self-rising flour and 1/2 cup of water, mix together until the flour is sticky. Roll out dough onto a floured surface until it is very thin, i.e. PAPER thin (coat your hands well with flour and then pat some onto the sticky dough to help get it on the rolling surface)! Cut into long strips.

When chicken is done stewing, take out and separate meat from all the bones and skin and set aside (reserve all stock). To the stock add 1 stick of butter or margarine and the glass of thickening. Bring stock to a boil, add chicken pieces, and boil for about five minutes, stirring frequently (you want it to boil up to the top of the pot at least two times and when it gets that high, take it off the heat until it settles down, then add it back). Once it's boiled up two times, begin adding dumplins, pinching off pieces of the long strips and gently putting them into the boiling stock.Make sure the stock is bubbling as you add the dumplins and if it stops bubbling wait until it starts again before adding more. Continue to do this until you've added all of your dumplin' strips. When the dumplins get "fat", it is done.

*Recipe provided to me by his daughter Carolyn

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