So, I never tasted or made Chicken and Dumplings until about two months ago.  My mother-in-law made a fantastic dinner of Chicken and Dumplings (besides other amazing things), and I knew I had to try this for myself. It's been haunting me since the last time we had dinner there!

So last week, as I was scrolling through my NYT What to Cook This Week email feed, this recipe from Alison Roman appeared. The picture looked so good, I saved it to my recipe box and promised myself I would make it this weekend.

The recipe didn't disappoint!  I followed it almost to the letter, but of course, added some red chili flakes to the soup base and a squeeze of lemon at the end.   Yeah, that's kind of my signature thing, right?  Spice and acid!

The recipe required multiple steps but was fairly easy.  I've never made dumplings before so I wasn't sure what to expect.  They were easy to make, but my suggestion is cutting the dumpling recipe portion in half and making the dumpling smaller than Alison recommends.  My suggestion is making them mini meatball size and cooking them about 3 more minutes longer than is recommended.  

Here is one thing I'm going to tell you that you can't every forget.  ONLY buy chicken thighs, bone-in and skin-on.  When you brown these thighs and render the fat, it provides a flavor that you can't get any other way.  Boneless, skinless anything is horseshit (sorry, watching Step Brothers) and just doesn't produce the same result.  If you read my last post, you learned about my new Better than Bouillon trick.  The difference between this and box stock, or plain water, is like the difference between Cool Whip and real whipped cream. Try it and you will never turn back!  

Stay warm on this snowy day my friends!