Elswet's Creole Style Chicken & Dumplings

Total Time: 5 hrs 30 mins Preparation Time: 45 mins Cook Time: 4 hrs 45 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 10
• 3 lbs roasting chickens, disjoined
• salt and pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 quarts water
• 1 1/2 teaspoons rubbed sage
• 1 teaspoon ground rosemary
• 2/3 teaspoon ground thyme
• 1/2 cup chardonnay wine
• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon sassafras leaves, ground (aka gumbo file)
• 1/3 cup milk

Recipe

• 1 chicken: place chicken pieces into a large pot. add water, salt and pepper and bay leaf to the chicken pieces, enough to cover the chicken.
• 2 partially cover your pot and cook on medium until tender. simmer gently, do not allow the pot to boil! the chicken will take 3 or 4 hours. when tender, remove the pieces from the broth, and keep warm.
• 3 gravy: there should be 3-4 cups of broth in the pot. skim off the fat and measure the broth. for each cup of skimmed broth, mix 1 1/2 teaspoons of the fat with the same amount of flour.
• 4 stir several spoonfuls of the hot broth into the fat-flour mixture, and then pour the mixture back into the broth in the kettle.
• 5 cook the gravy until it is slightly thickened. add sage, rosemary, and thyme, and salt and pepper to taste.
• 6 dumplings: sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together. beat the egg, add the milk to the egg, and mix with the dry ingredients.
• 7 drop by spoonfuls into the simmering chicken gravy, or roll out to a 1/4 inch thickness and cut into 1 inch by 2-inch pieces and drop into the gravy.
• 8 cover tightly and cook for 15 minutes. the cover must not be removed, while the dumplings are cooking.
• 9 debone the chicken, add back to pot. add wine and gumbo file (ground sassafras leaves), stir and let heat for 8 minutes.
• 10 serve.