Chicken casserole & dumplings

How to make delicious Chicken casserole and crispy dumplings, simple step by step instructions from start to finish.

Ingredients

Chicken Casserole:
520g / 18oz Chicken breast fillets
2 Medium potatoes
1 Large Carrot
1 Parsnip
1 Medium onion
1 Medium leek
Half of a small turnip
40g / 1½oz Butter
2tsp Vegetable oil
½tsp Salt
570mls / 1 Pint water + 60g / 2oz chicken gravy granules
Dumplings:
330g / 11½oz Self raising flour
2tsp Baking powder
175g / 6oz Milk
60g / 2oz of Cold butter
100g / 3½oz Beef or vegetable suet
1 Large egg
70g / 2½oz Finely chopped spring onions
2tsp Baking powder (if you’re using plain or all-purpose flour: use 4 tsp of baking powder)

Start by preparing the dumpling mix.
Finely chop the spring onions.
Sift into a large bowl. the flour and baking powder.
Rub in the cold butter with your fingers, until it resembles fine bread crumbs.
Add the chopped spring onions and beef or vegetable suet.
If you can’t find suet, add an extra 100g / 3½oz of cold butter to the previous rubbing in step.
Lightly toss all the ingredients together using your fingers until thoroughly mixed.
Whisk the egg and milk together and add it to the bowl, with an ordinary dinner knife cut the mixture together, until it becomes a sticky mass.
Cover the bowl with a dry clean towel and let it relax at room temperature until needed.
Preparing the Veg.
Wash and peel all of the vegetables, and cut them into at least 13mm / ½inch pieces but no bigger than 25mm / 1 inch.
Cut the chicken fillets into 25mm or 1 inch pieces.

Place a large pan over a medium heat, add the oil and butter, once melted and hot, fry off the chicken until just turns white.
Add the vegetables all at once.
Pour in the water and bring to a simmer.
Add the chicken gravy granules and stir in well.
Cover the pan and simmer on a low heat for 15 minutes.
After the 15 minutes, pre heat your oven to 180°C / 355°F / Gas mark 6.
Carefully pour the casserole from the pan into a dripping tin (see the video for tin dimensions).
Using a dessert spoon, spoon the dumpling mix into the casserole, from this mix you should get 12 decent size dumplings. Tip: to prevent the mix sticking to the spoon dip it into the casserole before each spoonful of the mix.
Place the tin in the pre-heated oven: and set your timer for 30 minutes.
Once the times up, your dumplings should be golden brown and crispy.
Serve piping hot straight from the oven.
Enjoy.