My Irish family is smiling...

Corned beef and cabbage are smelling up the households of many an Irish family tonight, but not mine. No, we are wafting in the aromas of fine chicken stew with jalapeno dumplings. Stew is Irish, nothing like putting everything into a pot and letting it simmer all day, OK, I didn't have all day so this is a little quicker version of stew.

I used a mix of chicken breast and thigh meat, trimmed of all fat and skin and cut into bite size pieces. These I tossed with Mrs. Dash's chicken seasoning, and browned in olive oil in a 6 quart Dutch oven. I added a mirepox of chopped onion, celery and green pepper as seasoning vegetables then about 3 cloves of garlic chopped. When these vegetables were tender I sprinkled flour over the whole mess and stirred to coat. I dumped in chunks of potatoes, baby carrots and pearl onions then added my last quart of chicken stock and stirred and stirred and stirred until all was right with the stew. I tossed in a bay leaf and put the lid on and left to cook for an hour. Taste the stew and add seasoning accordingly. I use a splash of vinegar because I don’t use salt.

The dumplings are a simple biscuit recipe; 2 cups flour (I like White Lily for biscuits) 2 teaspoons baking powder, ¼ teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon salt. Pulse this together in a food processor then add 6 tablespoons cold butter, pulse 4 times, add ½ cup shredded pepper jack cheese and ¾ cup of buttermilk. Pulse about 4 times to mix, the dough will be wet and soft. Dip ¼ cup dough onto the boiling stew there should be about eight dumplings. Cover and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes.

Ahhh, the Irish in my family are smiling!