Slow Cooker Chicken Dumplings

First time I tried chicken dumplings was at a Cracker Barrel in San Antonio. Nothing special at first glance, the color was just so plain and the taste was so so. My likeness for chicken dumplings grew over the years and nowadays I would take my kids to Cracker Barrel to eat chicken dumplings.

Thanks to Google, of course, recipes for chicken dumplings are not hard to find at all. Here is my version of it:






4 frozen chicken breast tenderloins
2 T butter
2 celery hearts, sliced
1 medium onion, sliced
broccoli soup
cream of chicken soup
1/2 a package of refrigerated biscuit dough, torn to little pieces.

Put all ingredients (except for celery and biscuit) in a slow cooker, cook on high for 5 hours. The biscuit dough pieces goes into the mixture after 3 hours of cooking (make sure you push them in deep into the mixture so they are cooked), and the celery slices go in last, 1/2 hour before you turn off the crockpot.


Beautiful chicken and dumplings

Lemon pull-apart coffee cake

Grated lemon and orange peels (tip: use firm lemon and orange, the harder the skin, the easier to grate)


This is the yeast I used (the whole package)


The rised dough, rolled out to about 12 x 20 inches.


Before final proofing. I put the dough in 2(two) 8 x 4 in. pans. sprayed with PAM.


After final proofing (left it in 70F room for about one hour)


Fresh from the oven


Final product

First time someone pinned the picture of this bread on pinterest. It just look too delicious to not try to find the recipe. The one I decided to try is from here by Brittany Elise.

My version is using a bread maker to make the dough. The only step I skip while making the dough is that I did not melt the butter before dumping it in the bread maker. I just made sure it was at room temperature.

Mexican Pulled Pork (Carnitas)

I watched America's Test Kitchen the other day. They were featuring this carnitas recipe and decided to give it a try using a crockpot instead of braising it in the oven. You can eat it on a tortilla, served with sour cream, diced onions and cilantro. Or go my way: with sambal dabu2 & rice .. Mexicanado (Mexican Menado) style :).


About 3 pounds boneless pork butt cut into 2-inch cubes
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 small onion, peeled and quartered
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano (do not use Italian or any other kind)
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1.5 cups water
1 medium orange, halved and squeeze the juice out.

Put everything in the crockpot, set it low for 6 hours. Pull the meat apart with a fork to serve.