Salsalady's Caribbean Chicken and Dumplings-
1 chicken
1 box corn muffin mix and 1 portion biscuit mix with egg and milk per recipe for each, mix according to box directions, then mix together.
For the roasted chicken-
Latin/Jerk/Or other spice mix to taste
vegetable oil- any kind will work, just to mix with the dried spice mix for rubbing down the chicken
Savory Herbs for roasting chicken, fresh or dried, use what you have available
Lemon grass and Lime leaves for roasting chicken
1/2 fresh onion for roasting chicken
6-8 cloves garlic
Chicken broth base-
2 carrots-diced
1 red bell pepper- diced
3 large shallots- diced
ginger
chile of choice- I used some frozen New Mexico Hatch chiles and more Sauce Goddess Latin Spice mix
chicken broth
pineapple slices
4 ginger snap cookies
From the top!
Mix the dry spice mix or dry herbs with oil and rub all over the rinsed and trimmed chicken. Rub it all under the skin to get those spices into the meat. For this recipe, I won't be using the skin, but rubbing the skin down with the spicy oil makes some wonderful crispy skin tidbits!!!
Stuff some chunked onion, garlic and savory herbs into the chicken's cavities. In keeping with the tropical flavors, I also used smashed lemon grass stalks and lime leaves with the sage, rosemary, thyme.
Plop it into a roasting pan or pot and bake as usual, about 350F for 40 minutes.
When the chicken is looking all golden happy and the leg joints feel loose (quick tip on how to tell when a chicken is done...the leg and wing joints move easily)... remove from the oven. Set the chicken aside on a plate and pour the drippings into a bowl.
[I used a cast iron pan which works on stove top and in the oven. If you use an oven roasting pan for the first part, just use a regular stove top pan for the next part...]
Add 1-2 tablespoons of chicken fat into a pan set on medium heat on the stove top. Cook 4 pineapple rings in the drippings until nicely golden. Remove from pan and set aside.
Add your veggies of choice to the pan, starting with the firmest veggies first(carrots) and the lightest last (peas, in this case...snow peas), and sauté until tender.
Add about a quart of chicken broth to the pot and all the chicken drippings, bring to boil. Taste, adjust seasonings as desired.
Bring up to boil, add some shredded chicken (about 1/2 of the roasted chicken, I like a mix of light and dark meats) and the pineapple rings, chopped up. Also add 4 ginger snap cookies, for the sweetness and also to help thicken the chicken-veggie broth.
Mix up the corn muffins per box directions and let it rest in the bowl for 5 minutes, mix up the biscuit mix per directions, then mix both the corn and biscuit mix together.
Plop blobs of dough into the simmering broth, cover and cook for about 12 minute. At this point, the dumplings are cooked, but I put the cast iron back into a 400F oven to brown up the tops.
Dinner is served!
WOW! This was a pretty spicy chicken dish. The citrus notes from the lemon grass and lime leaves came through in the roasted chicken. The Latin Spice mix kicked it up and I'd originally thought to add more spice to the dumpling mixes but that was not necessary.
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