>> They say you are what you eat, so I don't eat chicken feet, but I love me some of Grandma's pickled beets.

Well cut it up, put it in the pan, throw it over your shoulder and see where it lands right here in Farmer's Kitchen.

Maters, taters, beans and corn, the cows in the barn and the [MUSIC] [MUSIC] sheep's been shorn..

Kids in the barnyard chasing Grandpa's chickens, chickens, chickens!

Spices, slices cuts and dices, going to slash your grocery prices right here in Farmer's kitchen.

Help you grow your garden good with recipes to suit your mood try some grub you've never tried before.

Smash it [MUSIC] with a [MUSIC] [MUSIC] wooden mallet gonna educate your palate, right here in Farmer's kitchen.

In Tim Farmer's Country Kitchen.

[MUSIC] We gonna cook somethin good now.

>> Hello and welcome to the Farmer's Kitchen.

We're the Farmers.

We're in blue.

You look amazing in your blue sweater tonight.

I like your blue.

Well, thank you very much.

Hey, if you will, go ahead and roll my sleeve up, because we're about to get to work here.

All righty.

You only have to roll up one think all the time we save by you not having to roll my other sleeve up.

It's wonderful.

It's amazing.

We had somebody from California the other day ask us to do chicken and dumplings, and I thought, you have got to be kidding me.

Here we are a country kitchen, and we have not shown, that's bad.

And that's just mean holding off a Southern classic.

That's right.

And let me tell you what.

I have spent time and effort and energy trying to get the perfect chicken and dumplings.

You got it.

And you know what?

I used to make it for the girls years ago and I kind of forgot how I did it.

And and I make squirrel and dumplings and all kinds of wonderful.

And it's a very simple recipe.

But there's one thing you cannot skimp on.

You know what that is?

What's that?

Fresh chicken.

That's right.

You got to have a fresh chicken.

You can't get store-bought chicken broth.

Or you're going to be disappointed.

Right.

Especially after you try it with the fresh chicken.

Oh, yeah.

So tonight, we're going to make you my top secret, it's so good, chicken and dumplings.

So good.

We had some of the other night, and it's just.

Oh, it's wonderful.

Now, there are many ways you can make your dumplings.

We're going to make them the way we like them.

Dad and his Southern friends call them Slickums.

Slickums?

Slickums.

Now, Mom likes them fluffy and dry in the middle.

I like the slickums.

And we're going to show we're going to show you how to kind of do one in between too.

All right.

So the first thing we got to do is we're going to get about six cups of water.

Okay.

So we're going to get this chicken boiling.

Now, a chicken about this size four, four and a half pounds.

Going to do it for about 90 minutes.

That's the magic number.

Let's see where that takes the water level when we drop this cat in here.

All right, I'll tell you what, I'm going to put two more cups in here.

Let's make that about eight cups.

Now, I want to end up with eight cups.

All right.

Six to eight cups is where I want to end up.

That means you're going to have to add some water as we move along.

So I'll fill it all the way up for you,.

If you will.

So we know about right here.

When we look at it, we're saying it is about eight cups.

It depends on the size of your chicken.

And I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to put a couple of things in there.

I'm going to put some salt.

Something else I'm going to do.

I'm gonna put a little poultry seasoning in here.

Yummy.

I'm going to take some pepper.

I'm really going to go heavy on the pepper.

Yeah.

I like pepper.

You got to have pepper in your chicken and dumplings.

Now, as far as other flavors, I'm going to take an onion and I'm not going to cut it up a bunch because those flavors will cook throughout here.

Did we not just, we ate the whole pot, and it's been it's been like a year since I made it and, it's so delicious, sometimes.

So good.

You get so involved in what we're doing.

We skip over the things that we make for us.

That's right.

We think well everybody knows how to make that.

This, I promise you, it's fantastic and it's top secret.

So, yes, it is, don't tell anybody.

So we're going to crank it up, turn it on, get it boiling.

Then we're going to cut it back and keep it on a slow and steady boil for about 90 minutes.

All right.

Mrs. Farmer, if you'll knock the hide off these carrots right here.

Since we know we've got about an hour and a half to burn, we'll plan accordingly.

So we're going to boil these carrots to make the perfect side for chicken and dumplings.

And healthy.

We're eating carrots.

Not the way we're eating them.

That's right.

Do you like my shirt?

I do like your shirt.

It's a new shirt.

It's not.

It's not the one everybody loves, though.

That's true.

But I can't wear it on every show.

It's true.

I've got complimented on it three times, three times.

Now, this particular shirt had a hole in it.

I don't know how it happened to a new shirt.

Very upset.

Guess who fixed it?

That's right.

Don't look too close because I'm not a seamstress.

Don't look.

I don't know how it happened.

Okay, back to the food.

All right.

I'm going to tell you about my top secret, these are all top secret recipes.

I can't believe I'm giving them out.

Me neither.

Green beans.

You want the best green beans in the world?

Should I tell them?

Tell them.

All right, first of all, cover them with chicken stock.

All right.

That's the beginning.

Pour out the juice you had with them, whether they're homemade or store-bought.

Pour off the juice.

Then you got to chop some onions.

Okay.

[MUSIC] Now we're going to use... Now we're going to use about a third of a decent size onion, yellow sweet onions.

This is the best green bean in the world.

And we have served these in so many events.

And every time we serve them people absolutely, absolutely dig these.

So we got onions, we got chicken stock, we have the green beans themselves.

And now we're going to have a little bit of bacon grease.

Which we always save don't we?

The good looking grease.

Yes, bacon grease.

Now we're going to put copious amounts of pepper in there.

We're using all purpose seasoning.

There's quite a bit of that.

It's good.

And if you want to give you a little more salty flavor, you won't even have to put salt in here if you do this.

If you want to use some chicken bouillon.

You're on your way to some pretty good beans right there.

Now something that some people do and some people don't.

It's up to you.

Some people like a little sweet in their beans and some people don't.

If you want a little sugar, it makes it really good.

I think it's good.

If you don't want any sugar, That's fine, too.

Now we're getting to a good boil here, Nicki.

So I'm going to turn it down just a hair.

Okay, then we'll cover that up.

Yummy.

You need to keep an eye out.

If you walk out of the room, you don't want the your chicken foam.

That's right.

Make a mess.

No one wants chicken foam.

I don't want a mess on my stove, that's right.

So our carrots are boiling away.

Now we're going to turn those back.

And remember, you want everything to time out accordingly.

So we know we got an hour and a half here.

Right.

We got about an hour here.

We're going to let those slide on by and we're going to cook those green beans for at least an hour til those onions really get cooked down and all those flavors begin to marry up.

This is a top secret meal here.

Yes it is.

And this is long overdue.

This just might be the perfect country kitchen meal.

Yummy.

I mean, yum Papa, as Sammie would say.

That's right.

So, Mrs. Farmer, the other day I said, because I'm so skinny, said I need to plump up a bit.

You did.

I need some good bread.

Yes.

And you said, hey, how about a quick bread, which is a bread with no yeast.

Right.

Can you please make that for our friends out there tonight?

Because that was absolutely delicious.

I know.

I ate about I ate the whole thing.

Now, it's not a it's not a white bread, per se.

Right.

Oh, my gosh.

There was something special about that.

So if you will share that with our friends out there.

So this is a quick bread.

When I was young, I remember buying those quick breads at the store.

And >> you could get, like, a date bread.

All you did was at an egg and water.

Milk.

Well, I thought, I need to make my own homemade and you like oatmeal.

Ohhh.

So I added oatmeal to this, and it's pretty it's an easy little throw together.

And I had honey that I'm going to use.

But the other night, when I made yours, I used honey and syrup mixed because I was out of honey.

Or you can use s syrup.

But tonight we're going to use honey.

Does that sound good?

Honey for your honey.

That's right.

Sounds good to me.

All right.

And how we're going to start.

I have a cup of milk.

Alright.

And this is vitamin d. A cup of what?

A cup of milk.

And it's vitamin D you can have anything you want, but if you like, skim.

And then this is a half a cup of honey.

Oh, does this mean we're in the land of milk and honey?

Yes, we are.

Right here.

You know, the other day, I did half and half or you could do all syrup, but I'm going to do half a cup of honey.

And our basic thing is just to get this melted into the milk.

And if you'll get me a wooded spoon.

Into the what?

Milk.

You're evil.

You said melk.

Okay.

Give me a spoon.

Milk-a.

A wooden spoon.

Wooden spoon is perfect.

Yes.

And I also have three tablespoons of butter, so that's my base.

Beautiful.

That's right.

So we're going to get this all melted down, and then I'm going to set it aside.

Let's let it cool a little bit while we do our dry ingredients.

Alright Mrs. Farmer.

What do we got?

All right, I got everything melted together, so I'm going to put it in another pan because I want to let this cool down a little bit, because we're gonna put an egg in there.

We don't want scrambled eggs.

That's true.

That's right.

All right, now I'm going to move all this stuff, and we're going to put our dry ingredients together.

Gotcha.

All right, >> let's put this chicken through some exercises.

Oh, that smells good.

I know it does.

Oh, yeah.

Now I'm eyeballing this, and I'm watching the level now.

You can see it's dropped a little bit, so I'm going to put a little bit more water in there because I want the end product to still have about eight cups in there.

So I'm gonna.

Good idea.

Come back with a little bit more water.

Okay.

We have cleaned up some stuff, and now you're ready with your dry ingredients.

I'm gonna put my dry ingredients together.

I have a cup and half of flour here.

All right?

I have, just all purpose flour?

All purpose flour.

>> I got a half cup of sugar, more sugar.

This is actually three teaspoons of baking powder.

Gotcha.

And I stole your salt away because I'm going to need one teaspoon of salt.

Gotcha.

That's my base.

I'll give you that back for yours later.

And now I have a third cup of oatmeal.

And I added oatmeal to this because I know you love oatmeal with, like, your oatmeal cookies.

You got oatmeal issues.

And I have three quarters of a cup of pecans, and I'm a chop these up so they can be mixed in the bread.

Peacans.

Pecans.

[MUSIC] >> Now, this ended up being a it looked almost like a wheat bread because of, all this, the oatmeal and pecans.

Man oh man, you talk about a perfect side with a little sweetness to it.

Super yum.

Oh, it's just delicious and it's quick.

You don't have to let your dough rest.

You don't have to let anything rise.

You just pop it in a pan, put it in the oven and let it cook.

It's so good.

>> All right.

So we're preheating.

Yes, we are.

I'm at 350 and we're going to cook for 45 minutes.

Gotcha.

Your mixture has come to room temperature, which means we need to get this in the oven, don't we?

Gotcha.

All right, so last ingredient, one egg.

I'm gonna go ahead and put this in my main big bowl.

>> Whisk it up.

>> All right.

And now I'm going to this is room temperature.

Gotcha.

As long as it's not hot because I'm going to add this to the egg and I'll hand you that to get rid of.

Thank you.

Kind of mix this up.

Is that it?

As far as ingredients.

That's it.

Now, pretty much what I'm going to do is get the mixer and slowly add our flour to it.

You need a hand?

Or you got it?

If you'd like to that be great.

Oh it must be nice to have two hands.

You can help me.

That'd be nice.

[MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] That's it.

Beautiful.

You know, for something that was so complex in flavor that seems awful simple.

Yes, it does.

Now, it was really good, I've already greased this, and we're just going to put this into the pan You smell it?

It smells good.

I remember that smell.

And we're just going to let this cook for 45 minutes.

while we're waiting for everything.

Get it out.

Coat it with butter.

Ohhh that's what I'm talking about.

Perfect side for this.

That's right.

Pop this in the oven.

You ready?

Let's do it.

And if you'll time.

45 minutes for me.

Chicken [MUSIC] [MUSIC] and dumplings.

Right.

>> There's a lot of people make these different ways.

There is no wrong way when you're cooking.

RIght.

If you like them fat and fluffy.

That's up to you.

If you like them skinny and noodley, which we do, yes, that's all good, too.

We're making that version.

We will not come to your house and force you to eat those.

That's right, Nicki might.

I won't.

Right.

So anyhow, Sally, our friend has three ingredient biscuits.

RIght.

They're always perfect.

We keep that in mind when we cook a lot of things.

Right.

This is the same thing.

We're going to show you.

We're going to put just a little bit, it'll make it four ingredients.

Ok.

In one of them.

Baking powder in one of them just to show you the difference.

But this is beautiful.

What are the three ingredients, Mrs. Farmer?

And guess what?

I get to use my lard and look how much I've used already.

And here is a little bit of footage of us cooking down massive quantities of pasture raised leaf lard from a pig, which is good stuff.

Yes, it is.

>> All right, so I'm going to need a tablespoon and a half of each of this.

I have I have a cup of flour because I've divided it, because we're going to try two different ways.

And I always got to use the lard.

Now, if you were doing a huge batch, you would double this recipe.

Oh, yeah.

But for us, this is about all we're going to need here.

Now I'm going to do two separate so we can do one with baking powder and one without.

Buttermilk.

Sally says always buttermilk.

Absolutely.

So I have a third with this half a cup of flour, and I have a tablespoon and a half of lard, third cup of buttermilk.

And we made these a little bit ahead of time because I think it's when you put them in the fridge and let them sit, it does not hurt.

It does not hurt at all.

And it's easier to roll them out, I think.

So we're going to go ahead and get that all nice.

Alright, before I get my hands all dirty.

I'm going to go ahead and add a little bit of baking powder here.

This is in the orange dish.

That's right.

We got about an eighth of a teaspoon here.

See if that's going to make a little bit of a difference and see if it makes those a little bit bigger.

Now, again, dad and his friends, >> some of his Southern friends call these slickums.

Slickums.

I like them thin and really doughy, noodley I guess you could say.

Yes.

And again, some people like the thick fluffy ones.

You could do that, too.

But this tonight is the way I loved them as a kid.

All right.

So let's remember, the Orange Bowl is the one with the baking powder in it.

Absolutely.

So we don't get them messed up.

Now when we drop this in and we combine everything together.

These are only going to go for about 10 or 11 minutes and they're done.

So, again, she's going to pop them in the fridge and we'll come back to this.

Looks pretty good.

It's almost time for a short break.

Yes, it is.

What kind of snack can we have?

Do you need cookies?

Oh, I wish we had some.

You know what?

Have we done cookies on the show?

Kelli have we ever done cookies on the show?

Kelli says twice you know what that means?

Time for some cookies.

We need some cookies.

Ooh, Mrs. Farmer, can you make me some cookies?

I can make you cookies.

All right.

Breads baking.

At 350.

Starting to rise.

Looking good.

Carrots are about done.

I've just turned them on low.

The beans still cooking away because I want to let them go for about an hour and get those, get those onions, those sweet yellow onions cooked down.

Those go in the fridge.

Baking powder, no baking powder.

Orange.

You got it.

You going to remember?

I'll forget.

So you remember you're in charge.

All right.

Pop those in the fridge and we'll be right back.

We'll ah... [MUSIC] [MUSIC] let's give it, like, 10 minutes, and then we'll pop it out and sit it.

Let's get, what do you think?

Oh, that's beautiful.

I want some.

It smells like heaven in here.

You know, it really shook me up when we got that message the other day from that nice young lady who's from California and said, I looked and there's no chicken and dumplings.

I thought, Oh, no, not a proper chicken and dumplings.

This is the real deal right here.

This is amazing.

And I said this early in the show, I'll say it again.

There's really no shortcuts here.

You gotta boil your chicken.

You absolutely have to boil a fresh chicken.

Because if you get the store bought, I mean, you can make chicken and dumplings from store bought broth, but no, not like this.

Not going to get that flavor.

All right, speaking of that, I'm going to turn the chicken off.

Okay.

I'll take the top off and you can see it's coming away from the bone.

That looks good.

Okay, so let's get this bird out of here very carefully.

It's draining.

It's falling apart.

Perfect.

Now, I can tell our liquid has gone down, but that's going to be enough to do what we've got.

Oh, yeah.

We're making a batch just for us, so that'll be fine.

And we're still going to have at least a quart and a half in there, maybe just a little bit more.

Ideally, if you're making a bigger batch, you'd want about two quarts, but this, this is going to be fine.

Let that set a minute.

We're going to start picking this when it cools down.

But Mrs. Farmer, we have some dumplings to cut.

Yes, we do.

Now, which one's the one with the baking powder and, the orange, let's get them out.

All right.

Roll them out.

All [MUSIC] right while you are doing that, I'm gonna take these carrots out carefully, cut them proper size.

Now, if you wanted to, you could use canned carrots.

But we're doing everything fresh tonight, and we're going to make sweet, to me the perfect side.

The perfect side for chicken and dumplings.

There's some sweet carrots.

And there's ways to sweeten them up.

You can have them without anything.

You can put a little butter on them.

But we're going to make an old family recipe that I discovered a few years ago.

We couldn't get our granddaughter to eat her vegetables.

That's right.

Didn't like carrots.

Didn't like carrots.

So we came up with a recipe called caroots.

And she said, well, what is a caroot?

I said, well here, just try it.

Just try a tiny little bite.

And amazingly enough, she liked caroots.

She did.

And to this day, she likes caroots.

I think she finally knows what they are.

What happens when you combine brown sugar, pure maple syrup and butter.

Why, it's going to be really good regardless of what you put in it.

That is our caroot recipe and you'll see what it looks like here in a minute.

It's a perfect side for this.

I'm also going to strain the onions and the celery out.

When that sets for, I don't know, 15 minutes or so once it cools down a little bit, I'm going to strain some of that fat off the top because I want this to be nice and pure and beautiful and wonderful.

[MUSIC] Now we have our broth back on and I'm going to put a little bit of heat under that.

I've got a low heat on my carrots.

Oh, excuse me.

My caroots.

Caroots.

That's right.

I'm going to put me some butter in there.

I'd have put half a stick to a whole stick.

I'm going to take some brown sugar and I'm just putting equal parts.

I'm not sure how much I'm putting in here.

Say, let's say a tablespoon and a half a piece I say is a quarter cup.

You think?

And here's the 100% pure maple syrup.

What is the ingredient... the ingredient, you notice I said ingredient, to pure maple syrup Mrs. Farmer?

Maple syrup.

Syrup.

It is sap.

Oh just sap from a tree from a maple tree.

Ok that's true.

That's all there is.

And we, well, let's just show you some footage here.

Here's some trees that we tapped.

The maple tree.

Here is the large amount of sap that we got from the tree.

We did get a lot.

Then you take this and you cook it down and you reduce it down.

And you reduce it down and you reduce it down.

And so what you've got is 40 gallons of sap.

And what's it get you a quarter cup of syrup?

Equals a very small amount of pure syrup.

But you know what?

It's worth it.

You were very patient.

I didn't have the patience.

Now I see why it's expensive in the store.

Yeah, exactly, exactly.

You go to store and say, why am I paying so much for pure syrup because it's laborious.

Is that a word?

That's a word.

Laborious.

So we're cooking this down.

Low temperature.

I'll turn it up just a little bit.

Our beans are done.

They look good.

When you start seeing the moisture cooked out and all those flavors.

And you see I took my bread out and set it there.

Just to look pretty.

Look at that beautiful bread.

Make it look pretty for us.

And what are you going to call it again?

That is my honey, oatmeal pecan bread.

Quick bread.

Yeah.

Quick bread.

Yeah.

This is the quintessential Tim Farmer's Country Kitchen, perfect Southern meal.

Yes, it is.

Is this not beautiful?

It is beautiful.

I'll tell you what I'm going to do, I'm going to go ahead.

You can help me, Mrs. Farmer.

Get your carrots in there.

Get everything in there.

Now, if you've had any kind of candied sweet potatoes or anything like that, these are amazing, it will put you in mind of that.

We're going to let those become acquainted in that beautiful caroot sauce.

It's time to pick the chicken.

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to start grabbing and see what we got here.

It's cooled down enough to where I can start grabbing.

I'm gonna take that over here.

I'm gonna get rid of the skin.

So here's how I'm going to cut my chicken up.

I want to cut my chicken up.

And, you notice, I've got mostly white meat here.

Now I prefer dark meat any time with chicken, but for chicken and dumplings, I usually use the breast meat first.

And I'm supposing, we're probably going to need about I don't know exactly, but probably about a cup and a half.

Two cups of chicken here.

Okay, while you're cutting dumplings.

>> I'm going to put some tellicherry pepper in here.

You can use as much of this >> as you want, and it will not heat things up.

It's more sweet.

It's good.

In fact, it has a few citrusy notes in it.

It's hard to explain if you've never tried it.

Alright on this side we're going to put the ones without.

This is the without that's right.

And see if you can see a noticeable difference.

This is the way I like them right here.

Slickums.

We're going to drop those in here, I've got the temperature back up.

Almost any chicken brothy recipe... chicken soup, chicken and noodles, chicken and dumplings.

If you want to put a little sweet, dried basil in there, doesn't it really adds something Nicki?

Sounds good.

A little sweetness.

A great flavor.

Put a little in the top here.

These are with, with, the baking powder.

We'll see what we get.

So these I have found I've timed them.

Generally if you keep these in the 10, 11, 12 minute range, you're doing just about right.

Now, I've noticed almost immediately these ones with the baking powder are popping to the top Nicki.

Really?

Really?

Isn't that something?

Yeah it is.

Oh look at these.

Now look at the difference.

Look at the difference here.

Now see, that's the way I like them almost like a noodle.

And these over here have a little bit of puff.

Do you want some more?

Yep.

I like them all.

That makes me very happy.

You know, you get your chicken and dumplings and there's a consistency that you look for.

And it's very simple to make that and make it perfect.

What you're going to do is take some flour and water.

Now we've got more flour than we got water here.

And I'm going to, turn this around Mrs. Farmer.

You just roll that in.

Alrighty.

I'm going to mix it up.

I'm going to mix that in until we thicken up.

Now our caroots are basking in their glory.

The green beans are cooked down.

They look good.

All that moisture has cooked into them.

So we're about ready to plate up here Mrs. Farmer.

We got four more minutes.

All right.

Let's clean this mess up.

We'll plated up.

We're going to come back with some good eating.

Yay.

Look at that Mrs. Farmer.

[MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] Look how that thickened up.

See that, see that consistency.

That looks so good.

You go first.

Alright.

I'm going to try a carrot.

And this is the slickums.

That's what I like.

Look, look how doughy and bready that is.

Beans.

Look to me, and that might be too thin for some people.

That's the perfect one for me.

That's a big noodle.

Dumpling.

That might be the perfect meal Mrs. Farmer.

Now I've got to try a bite of your bread.

I absolutely love your bread.

It's got a little sweet, is almost like dessert.

I super buttered it.

Super butter.

Mmm.

That good?

Oh!

Mmm Mmm.

With [MUSIC] that honey, I can have that for breakfast.

That's my breakfast.

Now, the ones with the baking powder, they're just a little bit thicker, and that's fine, too.

I like the fact that they didn't get huge so they're both good.

Delicious.

If you want a little bit more, oh Mrs. Farmer.

That's good I want to eat all that.

I'm gonna eat all that in a minute.

But first, there's people saying, oh my goodness, Mr. and Mrs. Farmer, where in the world would you get those recipes?

And Mrs. Farmer, where would you go?

I go to Tim Farmer's Country Kitchen dot com.

But Mrs. Farmer.

Oh, if we don't eat, you got to let me eat, we'll perish.

I know I need to eat.

So we'll wrap it up by saying it's all about good times, good friends and good eats.

We'll see you next week on Tim Farmer's Country Kitchen.

I want to eat, but now I'm going to eat.

[MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] >> Funding for Tim Farmer's Country Kitchen is brought to you by Amerson Farms Country Store.

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Jim's Express Car Wash, a Kentucky Family Owned Business.

Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center in Danville putting patients and families at the center of our attention.

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The Spine Center of Central Kentucky.

[MUSIC] Beef.

It's what's for dinner.

Kentucky's beef producers.

[MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] To order a cookbook email Tim Farmer C K at Gmail dot com.