Leftovers Questions

 So often when I post about leftovers, I will get comments or emails about folks not eating leftovers. Usually it's the husband but not always. This morning as I was stirring together the chicken, broccoli, barley casserole that we're having for our meal today, I started thinking about this.

First, I'm not trying to convince anyone to start having leftovers or try to force leftovers on someone who doesn't want them but, because of the convenience and cost savings (using everything), I'm just wondering about things.

Second, there are some things I don't like as leftovers. If we grill hamburgers or steak, Vince loves having those as leftovers. I do not. In fact, I won't even eat either as leftovers. As much as I loved roasted chicken, I won't eat it heated up unless it's in something else - not just a piece of leftover chicken, no matter how much BBQ sauce or other sauce I put on it.

I guess I probably don't like any meat heated up unless something else is done to it.

Take pulled pork. I don't like just reheating pulled pork but if I make twice baked potatoes and add sour cream, butter, chives, and chopped up pulled pork, I love that. Also, if I make a pot of dry beans - Lima, pinto, cannellini and once the beans are cooked, add the chunks of pulled pork, I love that. I don't like the pork boiled but just added the chopped (in small to medium chunks - bite size) pork to the hot pot of beans is enough to heat it up.

Probably because I've always cooked more chicken than other meats combined, I love chicken leftovers. As soon as it cools, I'll pull all the meat off the bones. If there's enough to freeze, I'll vacuum seal it in bags in the amount I need for whatever recipe I plan to make. Here are some of the things I will make with leftover chicken:

• Chicken Gumbo of course but that's something we usually only eat in the fall and winter. Come early cold weather. I'm so hungry for gumbo! I sometimes will smoke the chicken for gumbo.
• Chicken & Spaghetti casserole (the kind without the red sauce).
• King Ranch Casserole.
• Broccoli, Chicken and Rice (we use barley instead of rice). I don't use a recipe. When we have roasted chicken, we have steamed broccoli so I have both of those left over that don't need cooking before adding to the casserole. We use barley and since that takes a while to cook, I cook it ahead too and make enough to have several dishes. We sometimes use barley instead of oatmeal for breakfast and with red beans and sausage so tomorrow, we're having red beans and sausage from a jar over barley. To the leftover chicken, broccoli and 
• Chicken & Dumplings - I remembered that this recipe is on the old blog so I went back and copied it. Because it was copied, some of the formatting is weird but the recipe is there. This is another dish I LOVE during fall and winter.
• White Chicken Chili - Another one I love in fall and winter.
• Chicken Salad Crescents - A summer recipe. This is so good on a hot summer day with a salad and grapes on the side.
• Chinese Chicken Salad - We love this. It's on the menu for next week.
• Smoked Sausage Cajun Alfredo - Love this one. Finding good Cajun sausage here is a bit of a problem. I need to remind Chad that he needs to make some.

One more thing . . if I'm roasting a chicken, it takes no more time or electricity/gas to roast two at a time. Pretty much the same amount of prep and cleanup time.

In a couple of weeks I'll smoke two chickens and make a gumbo. We'll have smoked chicken for dinner and the leftovers from that one chicken and the whole other chicken will go into a pot of gumbo. I will freeze hopefully enough that we can have gumbo several times without having to make it again.

You see why I buy chickens by the case at Sam's Club! At least every other week we have a roasted chicken, then have leftovers for a few days.

Chicken & Dumplings

 This is the recipe my grandma and my mom made. Dumplings can either be fat like little pillows or thin . . however you like them. I love this recipe. I copied it from the old blog so if it has formatting issues, some day I'll go back and fix it. Hopefully it's fine. 

One note: The recipe mom gave me calls for Bisquick. I doubt my grandmother used Bisquick so, I've added what I use instead of Bisquick.

To make chicken and dumplings, start with a chicken!    One of my quilter friends whose family hunts and “lives of the land” to some degree, several years ago she posted that her daughter’s first or second grade class was asked to write their version of how to cook a turkey. This particular little girl went into detail about cutting his head off, cleaning the feathers and so on.  Her mom wondered how many others in the class started off with a turkey from the grocery store!  So . . our chicken was actually a rooster and that’s probably as much as most of you want to know!

Boil the chicken. I add salt, pepper, celery, onion and bay leaves to the water. As far as how much fat to keep, I cannot tell you because we skin our roosters and they’re usually fairly young and don’t have much fat. You do need some fat but probably not as much as you’re going to get from a storebought chicken with the skin on it.  I would boil the chicken, let the broth cool, put it in the fridge overnight, then skim off most of the fat and add it back as it seems necessary to get the “texture” of the broth that you want.

Also, I don’t like a ton of chicken in my dumplings so I probably use about half the chicken meat and save the rest for other dishes (chicken salad or add to gumbo).

For the dumplings, you will need:

2 cups Bisquick
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper (I use more)
1 egg
1-1/2 cups milk

If you do not want to use Bisquick (I never have it here), do this:

3-3/4 cup AP flour
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper (I use more)
1 egg
1-1/2 cups milk

Start by mixing 1 cup milk with all the above ingredients.  Add more milk as necessary. The dough will be a bit sticky but it should be not so sticky that you can’t roll it out on a floured surface.

Roll the dough out on a floured surface! Roll it thin, thin, thin!  It will puff a little. I try to get mine about as thin as a potato chip.

Allow the dumplings to sit out for about an hour. Dust the top with more flour if needed.  Flip them over and dust this side with flour. Let them sit out another hour. The sitting out makes them dry out a little and makes them a little more “chewy” rather than so “doughy”.

If you haven’t already, strain out the onions, celery and bay leaves from the broth. Bring the broth to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. Shake the dumplings gently to remove the excess flour, though you don’t want to remove it all. The flour will thicken the broth. Drop the dumplings one by one into the hot broth. Do not stir!  With a wide spoon or spatula, push them downward into the broth and try to keep them from all sticking together.

Once all the dumplings are added, continue to push them under the broth but do not stir!  Simmer, uncovered for about 10 minutes. Add the shredded chicken on top of the dumplings, continuing to push them down but not stirring, for another 10 minutes.

I think they're actually better the next day.