Quick chicken and dumplings

I'm not in my own kitchen. I'm far from home with three children. Today has been...bleh. You'd feel that way, too, had you been away from your Viking for more than two weeks. So, my thoughts turn to things that soothe the bleh, like chicken soups, warm breads, hard liquor. This being a family blog and all, and given that I've already bestowed upon this blog sufficient warm breads recipes, I'm going with the chicken soup.

Having three children on my own, I'm going with easy chicken soup, or easy chicken and dumplings. Seriously, I just made this, and it took very little time and effort. Add that I think my children (well, two of them) will eat it, and it's win-win all around.

Ingredients: Chicken broth (I used one box of organic broth). Small onion, chopped. One or two cloves of garlic, chopped. Pat of butter. Biscuit mix or your favorite drop biscuit recipe--because what are dumplings, after all? They're boiled biscuits. Chicken, chopped or shredded--I just use the breast and thighs off of a market-purchased roasted chicken and save the legs for a later child dinner. Salt. Pepper.

Saute the onion and garlic in a large soup pan in the pat of butter. Add in the broth, bring it to a boil. Mix up the biscuit recipe and drop teaspoons into the boiling broth. It's fine to let little bits fall in, too, because it helps thicken up the broth to make a nice, creamy sauce-like base for the chicken and dumplings. Stir lightly and periodically.

While that boils, chop up your chicken. Then, mix it in to the broth and dumplings. Turn down to simmer, let cook through, salt and pepper to taste. Yes. You are done.

I serve this to my children with peas on the side, although some people I know put the peas in--I guess it's hard to handle that vast space of colorlessness that is chicken and dumplings. My mother-in-law hedonistically serves this over mashed potatoes, while other folks I know serve their boiled biscuits with chicken over...biscuits. We're just gonna eat it as it is.

Bon appetit.