Equipment:
Dutch oven, knife, peeler, and cutting board
Ingredients:
Five or six pieces of chicken with bones and skin (thighs are extra easy, others work)
Two cups Bisquick
2/3 cup milk
Cooking oil (olive is good, others work)
Two carrots
Two stalks of celery
One small onion
Some mushrooms (four big or eight little)
Two teaspoons chicken "Better than Bouillon"
The last five ingredients are all flavor-improvers. Do use some. Don't feel you need to use all.
Steps
Peel the carrot and cut into half inch coins
Rinse the celery and cut into half inch half-moons
Quarter the onion, peel it, and cut into half inch chunks
Brush off the mushrooms (a paper towel is fine), and cut into chunks a bit bigger than the others
Put enough oil in the dutch oven to make a kind of thick layer on the bottom (not more than a quarter inch, but more than you'd do for many other kinds of oil cooking)
Warm the oil over medium heat until you smell it or feel the heat when you hold your hand over it
Add all the vegetables and lower the heat some
Stir once, then stir about once a minute for five minutes
Added note: this whole thing with the vegetables in the oil for five minutes over low heat is called "sweating," and it really ups the flavor they add to the recipe. You want the vegetable to look kind of soft and kind of translucent, but you don't much want anything to turn brown.
Add the Better than Bouillon" and enough water to cover everything
Bring to a boil over high heat
Add the chicken, pushing the vegetables around so the chicken mostly ends up on the bottom
Add enough water to have almost everything covered, but with little islands of meat and veg showing
Bring to a boil again, then turn the heat way down and cover
Cook covered over low heat for 20 minutes
Uncover the dutch oven
Make sure you're seeing both islands of meat and puddles of broth
If you're not, add a little water or spoon out some of the broth
Pour the milk on top of the Bisquick.
Stir rapidly until it's a soft batter with some lumps, but no dry stuff on the sides or bottom
Spoon large tablespoons of the batter onto puddles of broth
Cover the pot and cook over low heat for ten minutes
Uncover the pot and cook over low heat for ten more
Variations:
1. If you're tired or busy, you can put your flavoring stuff cold into the pot with the chicken, and pour boiling water over it all so you see the little islands, and take up the directions where they say "Bring to a boil again." It won't taste as good as the slower way, but it'll taste better than lots of things you could eat when you're not up for big cooking.
2. If you don't have a dutch oven, you can do all the vegetable stuff in a skillet, then dump it into a wide soup pot, and take up the directions where they say "Add the Better than Bouillon." (Part of the joy of a dutch oven is the ability to move from the hot oil step to the lots of liquid step.)
3. Of course you can use bouillon cubes instead of the Better than stuff. Of course you can use chicken broth from a can or a box or your freezer instead of the Better than stuff and the water. Of course.
4. Got minced garlic? Want to use it? Throw a tablespoon or so into the pot in the last minute of sweating the vegetables.
