Have you seen “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation?” Remember that scene where Clark slices into the beautifully browned turkey skin only to discover that it is hollow inside, the exterior cracking down the middle to reveal a steaming, desiccated interior?

If you haven’t seen it, look it up. I’ll wait.

OK. Now you have a pretty good idea of how our turkey looked this Thanksgiving.

I mean, it was edible. But y’all… It was ugly.

I had never cooked a turkey before for any reason, and certainly not for a major holiday. But this was the year.

I knew I’d need time to let it thaw, so I bought my bird the Friday before and set it in the fridge. I prepped everything else ahead of time: apples for pies and cornbread for dressing, potatoes for mashing and potatoes for pie-ing.

By the time Wednesday evening rolled around, I was good and tired of cooking. So I half-heartedly consulted a few sources to estimate the time I’d need to get my bird baked. After all, nobody wants salmonella for Black Friday.

I planned to wake at 7:30 a.m. to allow plenty of time for it to be done by noon. I guess the anxiety got to me, though, because I woke up at 6:30 a.m.instead.

I decided to get up and prepare the turkey. I remembered that I don’t have a roasting pan, so after I tucked butter and salt and herbs under the skin, I slid it into my electric roaster.

And then. Well. Then I snuggled down with Pfeiffer and fell asleep on the couch.

In my defense, I did have a pretty good idea that it would take about 3 1/2 hours to roast a 14-pound turkey. And by “pretty good idea,” I mean that it appears in hindsight that I consulted one chart for the time and a totally different chart for the temperature.

Which is how it came to pass that when I finally got up to check the turkey, I found that it was already done. In fact, it was so very done that it was already halfway to its next gig.

Don’t get me wrong: we ate it. My family members are neither rude nor foolish enough to insult my cooking. But I think none of us has ever been so thankful that my mama had a ham.

So I knew the leftovers would go begging if I didn’t repurpose them into something quick, and preferably something soupy. Thankfully, I knew just the thing: chicken and dumplings. Zayley’s favorite.

I had two large deli containers worth of homemade chicken broth in the fridge, leftover from making dressing. I figured that broth plus the leftover turkey meat would make a decent stew.

But the dumplings had me a bit stumped. I’ve made dumplings several different ways before. Usually I have too many or too few. They are soggy or they are dense. Not bad, really, but not ideal either.

So checked my Betty Crocker cookbook to find… no recipe for dumplings whatsoever. (No recipe for dumplings? Go home, Betty. You’re drunk.)

I thought I’d met the same fate in my America’s Test Kitchen cookbook but finally found a recipe for dumplings in the stew section.

And I found the key to fixing my dumpling problems is evidently baking powder, and lots of it. These dumplings were just what I’d been looking for: easy to prep and tasty, calling only for ingredients I keep on hand. Win-win.

CHICKEN AND DUMPLINGS

Ingredients
For the stew:
7-8 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade with low fat content (I prepare mine ahead of time and refrigerate it, making the fat easy to remove as it solidifies at the top.)
2 cups cooked chicken or turkey meat
1 teaspoon chicken base (optional, if stock tastes weak)
Salt and pepper to taste

For the dumplings: (adapted from The America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon (yes, a full tablespoon) baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk
3 tablespoons butter or chicken fat

Directions
■ Pour de-fatted stock and chicken into a large pot; something similar to a Dutch oven is ideal. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. Taste. Add chicken base, salt and pepper to taste.
■ While the chicken stew simmers, prepare the dumplings: In a mixing bowl, stir together the dry dumpling ingredients.
■ In a small mixing bowl or microwave-safe measuring cup, microwave butter and milk for about 1 minute, just until warm. Stir the milk/butter mixture into the dry ingredients by hand just until no dry streaks remain.
■ Drop by teaspoonfuls into the simmering stew. (I use the smallest cookie scoop they make for this. You can make the dumplings bigger, but I prefer this size.) You may begin to run out of room on the top. That’s OK; just try to drop your dumplings where you see bubbles of stew peeking through the other dumplings. Do not stir. Drop the dumplings, resist the urge to stir and cover the pot.
■ Reduce the heat a bit, but keep the stew at a simmer. Set a timer for 15 minutes and do not peek. The dumplings cook on bottom from the stew and on top from the steam, which is why not stirring and not peeking are both critical.
■ When the time is up, stir gently and taste to see if it needs any more salt or pepper.

When it’s ready, call your family to the table and tell them to eat up because chicken and dumplings do not keep well. If you do have leftovers, I recommend storing the dumplings and the stew in separate containers to keep the dumplings from continuing to absorb all the liquid.

Amelia Plair is a mom and high school teacher in Starkville. Email reaches her at [email protected].

Amelia Plair is a Starkville resident who writes occasional food columns.