I’ve wanted to make a post of a typical country meal. And well, I decided to go ahead and make it. What’s included is Southern green beans, cream corn, and chicken and dumplings. I hope you like it! (The next time I make this all together, I’ll add some pictures. Adding 3 or 4 different pictures with different foods than what’s on here seems a bit much.)
Country Green Beans (Otherwise known as my KoKo’s green beans)
2 bags frozen green beans (or about 3 cans of normal cut or french style canned green beans)
Crisco Shortening
Pepper
And, most importantly, BACON
Put some crisco in a skillet and let it melt down, add and cook the bacon. When that’s done, and the green beans and some pepper and cook until it’s nice and greasy and tender. A little over done doesn’t hurt.
Cream Corn
1 family sized bag of corn
Heavy whipping cream
Pepper
Sugar
Mix all at once and cook until done. (I tend to be pretty liberal with my use of the heavy whipping cream.) Use corn starch if you want to thicken it up a bit.
Tools you’ll need:
Crock pot or a 9*13 pan for the oven
Large pot (it honestly tastes fantastic with everything made in a cast iron dutch oven, but use this if you don’t have one)
Wooden spoon (it doesn’t leave a taste like metal and plastic spoons)
Cooking spray
Can opener
Ingredients:
4.5 to 6 pound uncooked whole chicken (if you don’t have time to cook one, just pick up a rotisserie chicken at the store; it isn’t as good, but it’ll do)
Chicken stock
Can of cream of chicken
Heavy whipping cream (it’s in a carton)
Salt, black pepper, red cayenne pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, mexican chili powder, paprika, brown sugar (optional)
First, put the chicken in the crock pot or pan and season it with all of the spices listed above and rub it all in really good (I don’t like to list amounts, because people have different tastes), and then pour as much chicken stock in the crock pot or pan as it can hold. Make sure the gibblets and all that are removed. Next, add the spices again, but don’t rub it in. Cook the chicken in the crock pot on high for at least 6 hours (this is for a 4lb chicken, cook longer for a larger chicken) or in the oven at 450 for 15min and then reduce it to 350 and 20 min per pound (honestly the oven is my favorite way). Be sure to check to make sure it’s done all the way through. Then, take the chicken out and take out the bones and take off the skin. After you’ve done that, shred the remaining chicken and put it in a pot on the stove. Have the stove on a medium setting. Just throw out the bones and skin, you don’t need those. Add the cream of chicken and a little bit of salt and pepper. Then, add the juices from the crock pot (if you don’t like it soupy, just don’t pour all of the juices in there or pour all of it if you do) and add at least a cup of heavy whipping cream (you may add more as you’re cooking, I usually do).
Dumplings
Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup of milk (start with 1/2 cup and add more if needed; depending on the weather or climate you may need to add more)
1/4 to 1/2 cup Crisco Shortening
Mix all together and knead onto a flour surface no more than 12 times. (You are more than welcome to add flour if it’s too runny or more milk if it’s not runny enough.) Once it’s good and easy to move around without sticking, flatten out and cut into strips. Leave them out to harden a little bit before adding them to the pot with the rest of the ingredients. Cook until done.
Enjoy!
