Feel good food

I am not a huge fan of taking drugs to cure a minor sickness.  Cold medicines make me crazy, and antihistamines give me horrible dry mouth.  So when my 24 hour sniffles over stayed their welcome this weekend I had to do something.  First I left work early to go home and sleep for a few hours.  I woke up rested and ready to whip up some magic, aka Chicken and Dumplings. 

It turned out so well, even with my usual missing and or swapped ingredients, that I decided to share the recipe for this cold curring dream:

Chicken and Dumpling's

Stew
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts (shredded)
2 cups chicken broth
1 tbsp corn starch
3 large celery stalks (sliced thin)
1 medium yellow onion (sliced thin)
2 cloves garlic (chopped)
salt and pepper to taste
2 tbsp fresh flat leaf parsley (chopped)

Dumplings
1 cup flower
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp baking powder
pinch of salt
3/4 cup milk (2% or whole)
splash of vinegar
(if you have buttermilk then congratulations, otherwise that's what the milk and vinegar are for)

1. Boil chicken together with onion flakes, salt/pepper, garlic, parsley, and any other spices you like, until fully cooked. Set aside chicken and save two cups of broth.
2. In a dutch oven whisk together chicken broth and corn starch until well blended, bring to a boil, stirring constantly.
3. Add celery and onion and return to a boil. Reduce heat and cover, simmer for 10 minutes.
4. While vegetables are simmering, shred chicken. Then add chicken to vegetables, cover and simmer for a bit longer.
5. Prepare dumplings while stew is simmering. First adding vinegar to milk. Mix the rest of the dumpling ingredients in a medium bowl, then add milk mixture/buttermilk.
6. Drop spoonfuls of dumpling dough into stew, evenly places around the top. Cover and cook for 10-15 minutes.
7. Sprinkle parsley over top and you are done!