Every time I post one of my “I am intrigued by WPF…but I would like to add several chilies and many spices to it” recipes, my friend always asks me to desify Chicken & Dumplings for her. I absolutely love a good, garlicky Chicken & Dumplings but X is just not into the traditional recipe, she tells me. Is there any way to make it so that the whole family will eat it?  I always mean to get around to it…but I found the request a little difficult to handle within the bounds of my cooking imagination. I will admit that as fond as I am of Cagey, and no matter how badly I wanted to help her, desifying this one sort of stumped me. How on earth could I make this quintissentially American dish into a frighteningly spicy offering worthy of the burnt out desi tongue?

The problem is that I just didn’t want it to taste gross. The thing about South Asian food, and what I try to do in my Confusion Food dishes, is make sure that the elements and spices meld together properly. When I cook purely Indian food and I can still taste the spices individually, I know that either I’ve frocked up the tempering or the proportions or I basically mixed spices that simply do not go well together. Add in the fact that she wanted it to taste garlicky and that the original recipe makes use of flour and milk, two ingredients that I don’t often use in my style of desi cooking, and I was pretty much at a loss as to how to do it.

This weekend I had some free time on my hands so I decided to take a chance. My favourite thing about this recipe is that you can easily switch out the protein to suit your lifestyle. So, and now might be the best time to “announce” this to the blog (as if you care!)…I have recently gone 90% pescatarian, mainly because I watched this terrible Top Chef episode where they had to cook at the farm and interact with the animals beforehand. I don’t eat pork or beef, but I will admit to indulging in lamb and chicken. Unfortunately, the animals were a little too cute for me, if you know what I mean. The truth is, I actually DO feel guilty for eating fish (ask BB about how my lower lip trembled while fishing in Belize) but fish eating is a large part of my ethnic background (my mother is Goan and my father was raised in Goa even though he is Maharashtrian) and I simply don’t see myself giving it up, especially considering my fitness schedule. OTOH, I am really good at cooking seafood, and it does satisfy me, so there’s no reason I shouldn’t mostly give up my other 2 sources of animal protein. I say mostly, because

  • While I think the animals are cute, and omg, I can’t eat something that cute because I want to adopt it and cuddle it and have it make friends with J the Cat even though he will just cower in a corner and soil himself…I still REALLY like the taste of meat.
  • I just don’t think it’s wise for me long term, both because of my career and BB’s career/friends, to be so picky about not eating meat that I come off as “ruining” dinner plans by insisting that my eating habits be accomodated vis-a-vis restaurant choice. Now, I am totally cool with vegetarians and when someone says “I don’t eat meat” my automatic thought is “how should we accomodate this person in terms of the restaurant choice” but that’s because India has a high proportion of vegetarians, many of my Marathi relatives are vegetarians and I don’t take it personally that people have made that choice-whether it’s cultural or a deliberate ethical issue. However, some people do get really pissy and judgey over these things so while I find the animals cute and I don’t want to eat them…I also don’t want judgey people to have my pickiness to hold over me because of my whole social climbey stuff.
  • I want to use the qualifier “mostly” so when my friends see me hanging out with them chewing on chicken nachos I don’t get razzed for “cheating”. I was an omnivore till the age of 12 (parents left the choice of beef/pork up to me and my sister) and have eaten all other meats besides pork/beef since about the age of 12/13 till now, which is 29. So, maybe once in a while I’d like to snarf some chicken at a restaurant? Don’t hold it against me.   

So, uh, public service announcement over. And I promise you that I am physically incapable of going vegan and I will always make fun of them on this blog.

Anyway, getting back to the recipe

Vegetarians: sautee mushrooms seperately in olive oil, butter, or cooking spray and add to the pot with the milk.

Pescatarians: add shrimp or scallops (I used scallops because I was feeling lazy and didn’t want to shell anything but I think scallops would work better) as late as possible. Possibley even after the dumplings have cooked. Seafood is very delicate and doesn’t need long to cook. You don’t want to make them rubbery.

Omnivores: add chicken when recipe below says so! :)

Source Recipes:

Primarily The Cooking Critic’s post (link goes back to specific post) and the Better Homes & Gardens Recipe that she posted.

I also looked at Simply Recipe’s thoughts on how best to cook the dumplings, so I’m crediting her for technique even though I did not use her recipe.

and without further ado

Spicy Desi-Style Chicken & Dumplings Recipe

Ingredients:

Canola Oil, 1.5 tablespoons

Turmeric

Chili Powder/Cayenne

Mustard Seeds

Asafoetida

Cumin Seeds

Thai green chilies finely minced…I used 4 or 5 but mine were “old”

Garlic Powder, lashings

Salt, to taste

Fresh cilantro/dhania, lots, minced

2 % milk, 1 cup

All purpose Flour, 1/3 cup

Chicken/Vegetable Broth

1 package Bisquick “Buttermilk Biscuits” or Your Recipe for Dumplings –> this was easiest for me because I did not grow up making dumplings and I have no real “honour” to defend or desire to make them from scratch.

Vegetables: I used a few sliced baby carrots, a few florets of broccoli, frozen peas, some green beans chopped, a small can of corn & minced green onions (because hahaha, no way I am spending time peeling those baby onions). For the green onions, I used the whites and a few inches of stalk on each. I decided to go with fresh but you can just as easily dump in a mostly defrosted bag of frozen vegetables, just make sure not to overcook.

Protein: traditional dish uses cubed roasted/baked chicken. I really don’t see why you can’t just toss in cubed raw chicken with the vegetables and have it cook in the pot.

Method:

 1. Prep:

  • Wash & chop the vegetables or empty frozen bag into a bowl and thaw on the countertop for 20 minutes.
  • Mince the green onions finely, using as much of the stalk as you like.
  • Mince the chilies finely
  • Wash & mince the cilantro

2. Dumplings:

  • Empty the Bisquick Buttermilk Dumplings packet into a glass bowl.
  • Add minced cilantro
  • I also added just a sprinkling (teaspoon max) of mixed coriander/cumin powder.
  • Follow package directions. I added the water in little rivulets.
  • According to everyone on the internet, the trick, even with a package, is to add the water very slowly and mix gently with the fingers. Overmixing leads to leaden dumplings. I don’t have a basis for comparison but I would not describe mine as leaden.
  • Once a soft dough forms, stop and set aside.

3. Tempering the spices:

  • Heat 1.5 tablespoons of canola/corn/safflower in a pot that has a tightly closing lid. On gas range, gas should be “medium high”. On my electric range I use between 7 and 8. You don’t want the heat so high that the spices burn very quickly.
  • Right after you pour the oil in, add a teaspoon of mustard seeds, a teaspoon of cumin seeds, 1/4 teaspoon of turmeric, 1 teaspoon of cayenne, the minced fresh green chilies and several sprinkles of asafoetida. I apologise for not being able to give you a better approximation for the hing/asafoetida. Mine comes in this maddening little jar that doesn’t allow me to use a spoon but that requires me to poke a teeny tiny hole with a knife and then madly sprinkle into the oil every time I have to temper it. Uh…it’s very strong so I doubt you want even a 1/2 teaspoon. Maybe a quarter to start? That seems like a healthy amount-I get mine in such miniscule sprinklings that I really have no idea.

4. Cooking the Stew:

  • Wait until you hear the mustard seeds pop and start dancing-wait 15 more seconds, making sure the powder spices aren’t burning.
  • Pour in 1/2 a cup of broth.
  • Add all the vegetables
  • Now add more broth/water to just barely cover the vegetables. If you’re trying to cook the chicken from raw in the stew, add it in now (I really don’t see why you have to preroast or seperately poach it). You should add cooked cubed chicken at this point, also.  
  • Let simmer & bubble for a few minutes-while you’re doing that, take 1 cup of milk and 1/3rd cup of flour and mix them in a bowl so that the lumps mostly dissolve (try to dissolve as much as possible with your grubby finger… I mean, a sterile spoon or piece of kitchen equipment).
  • Once the flour is dissolved in the milk, add lashings of garlic powder into the milk flour mixture. Taste to see if it suits your garlickyness (that’s for you, Cagey :) ).
  • Veggies should have been lightly boiling away and should be slightly cooked…so add the milk-flour-garlic mixture at this point.
  • Stir and watch the stew thicken. Lower heat to simmer-bubble. Not like 1 or 2 bubbles occasionally floating to the surface, but a very slow simmer.
  • Taste and add salt and pepper as necessary.

5. Dumplings:

  • Now drop pawfuls of dumpling dough into the gently simmering stew.
  • Cover with tightly closing lid and do not remove! The dumplings have to steam and opening the lid allows the steam to escape.
  • Wait 15 minutes, then gently remove lid and poke a toothpick through dumpling. If it comes out clean they’re done.
  • Throw in a pawful of fresh cilantro and remove from heat.

Remove to bowl and burn roof of mouth. Enjoy! Makes 4-6 very generous servings depending on how much broth you used to cover the veggies.