Chicken and Dumplings with Mushrooms

In this monthly series, I commit to cooking whatever is on the cover of Bon Appetit, Saveur or maybe some other food magazine. There’s a reason these particular dishes are on the cover – they’re usually the best recipes in the magazine.

I’m gonna lay some honesty on you guys. I’ve dreaded this post for weeks because I hate these photos. I kind of blame Bon Appetit for putting Chicken and Dumplings on the cover. Hello, plate of brown food. But, in the spirit of one of my New Year’s Resolutions for this blog being “keep working on my food photography,” I’m going to try to dissect what went wrong and figure out how I could have improved these photos. If you’re not interested in food photography, I would suggest you just skip straight to the recipe – it’s more delicious than these photos would let on.

OK, so first of all – yes, this is obviously a plate of brown food. While Bon Appetit was somehow able to pull this off (maybe because they had more interestingly shaped mushrooms than I did?), I did not pull it off. The magazine cover image seemed to have a variety of shades and depths of brown, whereas I ended up with one yucky shade of tan-beige-brown. But, be that as it may – I cooked the cover recipe, and this is how it turned out for me.

I think my food styling could have been improved. Even though Bon Appetit included a spent/cooked sprig of thyme in their image, I think my photos would have benefitted from a fresh, green sprig. And maybe some chopped parsley. I think the chopped parsley in my Coq au Vin photos turned stewed, sort-of-purple chicken into something beautiful to look at.

Next, and this is HUGE – the lighting for these photos was terrible. While I know that the best times for photography in my south-facing dining room/office is either early morning or late afternoon, this dish finished cooking right at noon (poor planning on my part). Noon is the WORST time for photos – the sun is way too bright. But yeah, because I didn’t want to pack all the food up, refrigerate it, and then get it out later, I tried to power through.

In my free time, I’ve been reading the book “Plate to Pixel” by Helene Dujardin – one of the best food photography books out there. In it, she says “If you have time to wait for the right time of day, a time when you like how and where the sun splashes across your setup, then wait it out to get what you want. Otherwise, just make it happen by strategically placing yourself and your food.”

I said to myself “OK Helene, I’m going to show this high noon sunlight who’s boss.” Armed with a bunch of reflectors (really, just white poster boards) and a tripod, I set out to get what I wanted by strategically placing myself and this bowl of brown stuff.

An hour later, I was a sweaty, frustrated mess with no good photos to show for it. But you know what? I learned a lot about light that day. I learned that no matter what, noontime light is sometimes just too bright. I learned that reflectors can help a little bit, but they’re not magicians. I learned that a bowl of brown food is really hard to make to look appetizing, even in the best lighting conditions. And I learned that I still have a lot to learn about food photography.

P.S. Despite all of my struggles with and complaints about these photos, this recipe is really very tasty. I took the liberty of adding some lemon zest to the dumplings, because lemon zest makes everything better.

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Chicken and Dumplings with Mushrooms

Yield: 2 to 3 servings

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Ingredients

For the Chicken Stew with Mushrooms:

• 4 ounces bacon, cut into 1/4-inch strips
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 chicken legs (drumsticks + thighs)
• Kosher salt and ground black pepper
• 3/4 pound mixed mushrooms
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 medium yellow onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup dry white wine
• 3 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 4 cups less-sodium chicken broth

For the Dumplings:

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons whole milk

Instructions

1. Make Chicken Stew with Mushrooms: In large Dutch oven, cook bacon over medium-high heat 6 to 8 minutes or until crisp, stirring occasionally. Using slotted spoon, transfer bacon to paper towel-lined plate.
2. Place flour in shallow bowl. Season chicken with salt and pepper, then lightly dredge chicken in flour. Place chicken, skin side down, in pot and cook until deep golden brown (do not turn), about 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer chicken to plate.
3. Add mushrooms to pot, cook 5 to 8 minutes or until brown, stirring occasionally. Transfer mushrooms to bowl. Add garlic and onion to pot; cook 5 to 7 minutes or until onion is soft, stirring occasionally.
4. Add wine to pot; simmer 2 minutes. Add thyme, bay leaf, broth, chicken and bacon. Heat to boiling, then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, partially covered, 2 hours or until chicken is falling off bone. Add mushrooms and simmer an additional 10 minutes.
5. Make Dumplings: Heat medium pot of salted water to boiling. In medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, lemon zest, salt, nutmeg and pepper. Whisk in egg and milk (batter will be slightly lumpy). Reduce heat until water is at a strong simmer. Drop batter by teaspoonfuls into water; cook 5 minutes or until dumplings are doubled in size and cooked through.
6. Remove dumplings from water with slotted spoon and divide between serving bowls. Divide chicken between serving bowls and ladle stew over chicken and dumplings.

Did you make this recipe?

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