Arroz con Pollo

I took two recipes that I found for this classic dish and combined the things I thought sounded really good. I think the result was really great!

• 1 (2 to 3 lb.) chicken, cut into pieces
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 onions, chopped
• 3-5 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 can (14.5 oz) of stewed tomatoes
• 1 small can of green chilis
  
• 1 pinch saffron
• dash of red pepper flakes
  
• 1 cup white wine
• 1.5 cups of white rice
• dash of paprika
• 14.5 oz can of chicken broth
• chopped fresh parsley for garnish
• dried oregano
  
• salt/pepper to taste
  

-Salt/pepper/oregano chicken pieces. Heat oil in skillet over medium high heat. Saute chicken lightly until lightly browned. Remove from skillet and set aside.
-Saute onion, garlic, bell pepper until soft. Stir in saffron, salt, and pepper.
-Add rice and cook until opaque, 1-2 minutes. Stir in broth, white wine, saffron, chilis, and tomatoes.
-Stir in remaining paprika and red pepper (I like it spicy so I added quite a bit of the red pepper!). Return to a boil.
-Put chicken, skin side up, back into pan.
-Simmer for 20 minutes or until chicken is cooked through and rice is tender.

Southern Chicken and Dumplings!

You can't be from the South and not enjoy chicken and dumplings. The dish is relatively easy to make, although the dumplings are sometimes hard to get just right. I used the frozen dumplings, and believe me, they were NOT that great. They tasted morel ike noodles, I guess because they were so thin. I am listing a recipe for dumplings below, just because the homemade dumplings are so much better than the frozen ones! Or, alternatively, you could always do "drop dumplings" that my family does--just pinch off pieces of the dough once it is made, flatten it out a bit, and drop it into the pot with the broth.

Serves a LOT, so, if you don't want a LOT, you should half the recipe!

• one 2.5-3lb chicken
• 3 ribs celery, chopped
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 bay leaves
• 3 cloves of minced garlic
  
• 2 chicken buillon cubes
• 4 quarts of water
• one 10 oz condensed cream of chicken soup
• salt/pepper

-Cut up the chicken, but don't remove skin. The skin and bones will be removed later.
-Place chicken, celery, onion, bay leaves, garlic, bouillon, and salt/pepper and boil at a rolling boil for 30-45 minutes or until meat begins to fall off of bones. Remove skin and bones at this point, along with the bay leaves.
-Return chicken to pan. Add cream of chicken soup to chicken and continue to boil.
-If desired, you can thicken the stock by mixing 2 tablespoons of cornstarch with 1/4 cup of water and adding it to the stock.
-Drop dumplings into boiling stock. Never stir dumplings. Shake the pot gently in a circular motion to submerge dumplings in the stock. Cook for a few minutes more, until dumplings are done.

Dumplings:

• 2 cups all purpose flour mixed with 1 teaspoon salt
  
• 3/4 cup ice water

-Put flour in a mixing bowl. Beginning in cetner of flour, dribble small amount of ice water.
-Work mixture with fingers from center of bowl to sides of bowl, incorporating small amounts of water at a time. Continue until all of the flour is used up. Batter will feel as if it is going to be tough. Knead dough and form into a ball.
-Dust a good amount of flour onto dough board and rolling pin. Roll out dough, working from center. Dough will be firm. Roll to 1/8 inch thickness. Let it air dry for a minute or two.
-Cut dumplings into 1 inch strips. Working with one strip at a time, hold strip over pot, pull it in half, and drop into the boiling stock.
-Remember, do not stir mixture after dumplings have been added to pot.