Chicken Fricassee With Fluffy Dumplings

It's cold out there friends and, for those of you suffering the early onslaught of wintry snow we've been hearing about, we have just the stew to warm your kitchen and your spirit - German-style chicken and dumplings! Mmmmm.

This is perfect for when you're homebound and want to fill your kitchen with all of the comfort and warmth that the outdoors lack, and is filled with staple ingredients so you might be able to pull it off without having to go to the store. It does take time though, and is especially fun with a cooking buddy.

We used boneless, skinless (humanely-raised!) chicken breasts and thighs and they were so fork-tender by the time this was done that they just kind of fell apart. We also used cipolline onions again since we all loved them so much in the Breasts of Chicken Paprika. Any chicken and onions you have on hand should do the trick though. And just look at our beautiful veggies! What veggies are cuter than carrots with their tops on? (Sorry celery and cipollines, you're cute too!) Seriously, if you come up with one let us know below. :)

Now here's a handy thing to know after struggling to take the skins off of pearl onions fairly unsuccessfully for the entirety of our lives, and generally avoiding them because of this fact. We didn't notice the first time we used the cipollines, but there are instructions right on the package! And this can work for ANY pearl onions. Just blanch them whole in boiling water for 3 minutes, run them under cold water to stop the cooking (and save your fingers), cut off the root end, and the onion will just pop right out of its skin. Here's a life hack that really does work, tried by yours truly here at Ms. Schnitzel. Avoid these sweet delicious little onions no longer!

We had a lot of fun this particular Saturday evening, multitasking the Chicken Fricassee with the Chilled Raspberry Pudding....

All while enjoying some delicious German beer!

 do what you gotta do when you have sticky dumpling fingers

But let's face it, we are all about fun in the Haus von Schnitzel.

However, we also take our food seriously and were rather shocked at Grandma's Cookbook for suggesting biscuit mix. Not to criticize this gem of a cookbook, which has not let us down yet. Not even close. But we chose to make our dumplings from scratch using this recipe:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/dumplings/

The only adjustments we made were to use Earth Balance, hemp milk and pure cane sugar, 1 to 1 ratios. These dumplings were tender, delicious, and everything we hoped they would be. And since Tara is lactose intolerant, this was a perfect way to make a creamy, delicious and satisfying meal dairy free!

Other than the aforementioned adjustments and the substitution of an entire sprig of fresh rosemary for dried, we followed the recipe pretty closely and it turned out simply mah-velous. Remember, it is very important when adding your flour/water mixture to the boiling liquid to really stir constantly, otherwise you risk clumpage. Not that clumpage is the end of the world or anything.

That's it y'all, get cooking! We promise you won't be disappointed. And stay warm out there!

Sauerkraut Pizza, Ms.Schnitzel Style

 

We are really excited to share this recipe because it is super simple to prepare and yet still meets up to the Ms. Schnitzel Standard of Excellence! You could make it for Friday pizza night when you're exhausted from a long week of work, or throw it together for a casual gathering of friends.

We tested it three times to ensure we had the right balance of flavors. Oh, the sacrifices we make! 

The first time we ended up having to go to two different stores on empty stomachs, which is never a great idea, and we were getting HANGRY. (That is not a typo, it is a term that is defined in the Urban Dictionary, though Tara initially thought that Jen and GK made it up.) So we tossed our grandiose ideas to the side and just smeared some garlic infused oil on our crust, topped it with sauerkraut, sausage and cheese and threw it in the oven. It was super quick and pretty darned good, especially with a bit of horseradish. But we knew it could be better.

The second time we wanted to do a test run of our idea before the big MSU vs. OSU game, which is a tradition in these parts, and at which we wanted the pizza to make its big debut. We will not talk about the outcome of the game as there is a bitter rivalry between the founders of this blog.... Outcome of the game aside, the outcome of this pizza was brilliant - no matter who you ask!

See our lovely array of ingredients:

Pretty simple, right? When we are feeling more ambitious, we will make our own crust. But we had a whole game day spread to prepare, and buying Trader Joe's dough really made prep a breeze. You could also buy a prepared crust, which we did on our hangry night with a Whole Foods brand organic prepared crust. So you've got options.

Since our dough was chilled, we needed to bring it to room temperature for 30 minutes. Having tried to hurry this process before, we highly recommend you take the time to do so or your dough won't be pliable. Like yeah, it will just break apart when you try to stretch it. But this is the perfect amount of time to prep your ingredients.

Once your ingredients are prepped and the dough is ready, go ahead and spread it out or, if you're fancy like this fella we know named Rob, toss it in the air pizzeria style!

Then, drizzle some garlic oil on the crust and spread it all over, including the edges (fingers work well if you're not afraid of getting them a bit greasy!). We used pre-infused garlic extra virgin olive oil, but you could also gently heat a finely chopped clove of garlic or a few shakes of garlic powder in a tablespoon or two of olive oil and that would do the trick.

Next, spread your sauerkraut sauce evenly over the crust.

After that comes the sausage.

And finally, plenty of cheese!

This was definitely a hit, even the skeptics were made believers! It's not German, but it is German-ish. :)

Our Ingredients:

1 prepared pizza crust or dough ball

1-2 Tbsp garlic infused extra virgin olive oil

8 oz Cortland Valley organic sauerkraut

8 oz organic mixed medley cherry tomatoes (so pretty!), halved

1 small organic gala apple (also pretty!), grated

Pinch of caraway seeds, optional

6 oz (or 2 links) of precooked Brats Hans Chicken Brats, cut into thin rounds

8 oz Kerrygold Kilaree Cheddar (roughly, or more to taste)

Horseradish to serve, optional

1) Bring your dough ball (if using) to room temperature.

2) Make sure to start simmering your sauce first so that the flavors have a chance to meld together and the tomatoes and apple get tender. For one pizza, throw 8oz of sauerkraut, 8oz of cherry tomatoes (cut into halves), and 1 grated apple into a small saucepan and turn it to medium. If you'd like to throw a pinch of caraway in, go for it. We tried and liked it both ways.

3) While the sauce simmers away, preheat your oven according to the directions of your pizza crust (ours was 475*). Slice the bratwurst and grate up half a block of white cheddar - the Kerrygold Kilaree Cheddar comes highly recommended. 

4) Once the dough is pliable, spread it out or toss it to fit your pizza pan. Spread the garlic oil all the way to the edges of the dough. Evenly distribute the sauerkraut mixture over the dough, using a slotted spoon and pressing out most of the liquid. Place your sausage rounds in a pleasing pattern, and top everything with as much cheese as you fancy. Just remember, this is cheddar and it is stronger than mozzarella.

5) Pop the pizza in the oven and bake it according to the directions of your crust of choice. Ours said 10 minutes but took a little longer. Just make sure to keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn!

This recipe is so easy to double since we used exactly half of all the ingredients we purchased. Or you could just save the other half for the next time you want Sauerkraut Pizza. Like later in the evening... or the next day... Because you will want it again, and soon. Trust us.

Seriously though, we hope you enjoy this as much as we did. Have a fabulous weekend!

Applecake

Apfelkuchen! There, it needed to be said. How does one take the most simple of ingredients and, with equally simple preparation, produce the most delightfully down-to-earth treat ever? Apfelkuchen, or Applecake, is the answer.

With the plethora of apples spilling over the shelves of any market you go to at this time of year, and their rainbow of colors and patterns, we have been seduced into making all sorts of treats. Whether it's apple pancakes (see our previous post), apple crisp, quartered apples smeared with peanut butter, overnight muesli with fresh apples, or just sinking your teeth into a crisp, juicy, sweet or tart, flavorful (insert your favorite kind of) apple, we're on it!

This recipe was so quick to throw together and was met with such great reviews that Jen is considering throwing it into the Thanksgiving mix this year... And you know we take these decisions pretty seriously.

So you start with three bowls. One small one to mix together the brown sugar and butter topping - don't forget to bring your butter to room temperature in advance! (Bonus: If you are avoiding dairy you can totally use Earth Balance, or your dairy-free butter of choice, and almond milk. Voila!) One medium bowl for your eggs and milk. One large bowl (or oversized measuring cup) for your dry ingredients.

We like to keep in mind, the simpler the recipe, the more important the quality of ingredients. Which is really a win-win situation.

We reduced the amount of sugar called for by 2/3 cups, since we had sweet apples instead of tart and we like the flavor of our awesome ingredients to take center-stage over the sugar. We were a bit concerned, with the science of baking and all, that the texture might suffer.... We actually considered that this might be our first fail. But fail, we did not!

It certainly helped a lot in the preparation process that Jen has this crazy contraption that peels and slices apples all in one whirl (Tara will have one someday too, see the video on our sauerkraut recipe and prepare to be amazed), but grab a friend and a couple of paring knives and we're sure that part of the prep process will fly by with good conversation.

Once you've mixed the wet ingredients into the dry, you'll find that it is a pretty thick batter that needs to be spread evenly with a spatula, and that's ok. Then, if you are as OCD as we are, you will lay out your apple slices in a perfect mosaic pattern and realize you have way too many apples for that and dump the rest on, spreading evenly with your spatula. Last, dot your very moist, not crumbly and dry at all, topping all over the top.

The recipe suggests to eat this warm out of the oven, and we are not arguing. But this is a fairly large cake, good for a crowd, and if there are four of you it is likely you will have leftovers. Eat them for breakfast. Yes, we're serious. This is a sturdy, pastry-like cake and with our reduction in sugar it is perfectly but not overly sweet. Great for dessert AND breakfast (or lunch!), as Rob and GK would attest to. Go on, ask them!

We also had a moment of thinking that the delicious sour cream sauce from the apple pancakes would be sooo good with this cake. Not that it needs anything else. But come on, that sauce?!

Oh, one last thing... We used vanilla almond milk, which was divine. It is completely acceptable to use any plain milk of your choosing, but we strongly suggest throwing in a teaspoon of vanilla extract or scraping some vanilla beans into the mix. We think that flavor really took it over the top and the recipe might be a bit plain without it.

Happy mixing!