Which came first...

Chicken and drop biscuits or dumplings

I recently cooked 'Chicken Fricassee with Dumplings' from Guardian Service Tested Recipes cookbook that I thought and had been told was from the 1950's, since it had no date inside.  As I began prepping the chicken I realized that I had cooked this recipe before. After cleaning up, I retrieved my 1936 Magic Chef cookbook and it had the same recipe idea with a couple changes.

My family loved the 1950's version of the recipe instead of the one I had cooked before, so I assumed on taste that it had been updated throughout the years. I looked online and I saw a picture of my 1950's cookbook that actually dates it back to 1930. The recipe my family and I thought had been improved upon was actually written 6 years before the 1936 Magic Chef.

Until I find out for sure which one came first, I'll leave it up to you to decide which is tastier...

1936

Stewed Chicken with Drop Biscuits & Gravy (1936)

Temperature, 275 degrees; Time, 3 hours 

then

Temperature, 450 degrees; Time 15 to 20 minutes.

Cut 3 1/2 or 4-pound chicken for stewing. Place the pieces on a rack in a roaster. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of salt over it. Pour 2 cups of boiling water in the bottom of the pan and cover. If the cover has a valve, open it. Place in the oven at 275 degrees for 3 hours.

When the baking period is completed, remove the pan from the oven, pour off excess fat and save the broth for the gravy.

Have ready a biscuit mixture made as follows:

Biscuits

2 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons fat
3/4 cup milk

Mix and sift the flour, baking powder and salt. Cut in the fat. Add the milk and mix to a soft dough. Drop by tablespoons on the chicken. Place the chicken and biscuit mixture in the oven at 450 degrees and bake uncovered for 15 to 20 minutes.

While the biscuits are baking, prepare a gravy.
Gravy
3 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
4 tablespoons butter
broth

Mix the flour, salt, pepper and butter. Add the hot broth and enough water to make 3 cups of liquid. Stir and cook on the surface burner until the mixture reaches the boiling point. Serve hot over the chicken & biscuits

Yield: 6 servings.

1930's ?

Chicken Fricassee with Dumplings(1930)?
Time: 1 1/2 - hours. (Serves 6)
4 - 6 lb. Stewing chicken
1 small onoin
2 sticks celery
1 carrot, sliced
2 sprigs parsley
1/2 teaspoon peppercorns
1/2 bay leaf
1 tablespoon salt
1 cup cream
Finely chopped parsley

(1) Singe, wash, dry and cut chicken in serving pieces, dip in flour.
(2) Place 2 tablespoons fat in roaster, add chicken, brown over medium heat.
(3) Barely cover with boiling water. Add onion, celery, carrot, parsley sprigs, peppercorn and bay leaf (or may be prepared without browning, then omit step 2).
(4) Bring to boiling point, cover roaster, reduce heat to very low until chicken is tender. Add salt the last half hour of cooking period.
(5) Remove chicken to the preheated serving platter.

Gravy

Strain broth and return to unit over a low flame. Stir in cream slowly, thicken with about 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup milk combined to a smooth paste. Pour gravy over chicken, sprinkle with chopped parsley.

Dumplings:
2 Cups flour
3 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon butter
1 egg
3/4 cup milk

Sift flour with baking powder and salt, mix in butter. Beat egg and add milk. Stir into dry ingredients. Batter should be quite stiff. Drop by spoonfuls on top of chicken. Try to find pieces of chicken to park dumplings on. They will be lighter if not soaked with gravy. Cover roaster, raise heat to 1/4 flame. Bake for 20 minutes without lifting cover. Remove cover, lift dumplings to serving platter, sprinkle with finely chopped parsley or chives. Arrange chicken in center and pour over gravy. Serve bordered with a mound of prepared rice, dumplings or noodles around outside of platter. Baking powder biscuits or cornbread work well.

*If you don't want to cut up the chicken yourself, buy one that's already cut into pieces.

*Both recipes are good, but I found that 2nd recipe that added the vegetables, flour and fried lightly sealed in more flavor.

*Both recipes say you can pour gravy over the biscuits turning them into dumplings, but I chose to leave them dry. (My son has SPD and there are certain food textures that bother my son. If I had poured the gravy over the biscuits the soggy texture would bother him).

 

Have fun cooking either one recipe or both.