Fantastic Mr. Fox; Boggis’ Boiled Chickens with Dumplings
Boggis was a chicken farmer. He kept thousands of chickens. He was enormously fat. This was because he ate three boiled chickens smothered with dumplings every day for breakfast, lunch and supper.
-Fantastic Mr. Fox, Roald Dahl
Here we go! First post for 2015 (and the first post in almost two months-whoops)!
A lot of you are in the US, UK or Canada, and since it’s your winter time, I’m sending you this super comforting food. It’s chicken and dumplings, from Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr. Fox. For most of Roald Dahl foods, I tend to start with a sketch book, but as this is a simple meal, I looked to the cookbook, ‘Roald Dahl’s Revolting Recipes’, put together by his wife Felicity.
It’s a playful book, pulling out some of our favourite foods from his stories–Snozzcumbers to Frobscottle and Bruce Bogtrotter’s Cake. And it was just what I needed to get my inspiration flowing again for this coming year.
Fantastic Mr. Fox; Boggis’ Boiled Chickens with Dumplings
- Yield: 2-4 1x
Ingredients
- 700 grams chicken thigh
- 1/2 white onion, halved
- 1.5 cups carrot, peeled and sliced in thick chunks
- 1 celery stalk, chopped
- 1/2 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly cracked pepper
- 1/2 chicken stock cube
- 1/3 cup frozen peas
Sauce
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1 cup milk
- 1 1/2 cups chicken stock (from above ingredients)
- 2 1/2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
- 1/2 to taste salt and pepper, to taste
Dumplings
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 30 grams butter
- 1/2 pinch salt
- 1/2 to taste cold water
Instructions
- In a large pot, place in the chicken thighs onion, carrots, celery, parsley, salt, pepper and chicken stock cube.
- Add enough water so the chicken thighs are only just showing out of the water.
- Cover pot and bring to a gentle boil, reducing heat to a simmer.
- Simmer about 1 hour.
- Remove chicken from pot and cool.
- Set aside the liquid and carrots, and remove any fat on the top of the liquid.
- Tear the chicken meat off the thighs and set aside.
Sauce
- In a medium sized saucepan, melt the butter, then add the flour.
- Stir until well combined- about 1 minute.
- In another bowl, combine the milk and the chicken stock you previously set aside, before slowly adding into the butter/flour mixture.
- Boil and cook for one minute.
- Remove from heat.
- Stir in 2 1/2 tablespoons of parsley, salt and pepper.
Dumplings
- Mix together flour, baking powder, butter, salt and pepper.
- Add cold water bit by bit until the dough sticks together and can be smoothly kneaded.
- Dust your hands to keep the dough from sticking.
- Tear the dough into tiny balls and roll.
- Place your pan with the sauce back over a medium heat, and bring back up to a simmer.
- Add the chicken meat, carrots, peas and dumplings.
- Cover with a lid and simmer for 20 minutes until dumplings rise to the top.
Notes
adapted from Roald Dahl’s Revolting Recipes.
BOOKS MENTIONED IN THIS RECIPE
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