Chicken N Dumplins

Chicken and Dumplings are just a delicious comfort food and a southern staple.  I learned to make them from a dear aunt. Then I made it my own.  My girls love them, especially when they are sick. 

The main characters;

A whole chicken

Carrots

Celery

Onion

Poultry seasoning

Paprika

Salt & Pepper

Whole chicken

big pot

Cut the celery, carrot and onion in chunks and put in a big pot of water.  Add salt and pepper.

Cut up the chicken and add to the pot.  Let it boil until the chicken is tender.  Add more water if you need to.

Cut up the chicken in pieces to cook more evenly

Rinse the chicken after boiling and set aside to cool

Be sure you save all the water in the pot which has now become a rich delicious broth!  I didn't

 get a picture of that!

Throw this away! I used a pot with the strainer.  If you don't have this kind of pot, strain your broth.

Next get the broth boiling.  Add more water if needed or chicken broth if you like.

Time to make the dumplings!!

Cast of characters:

Self rising flour

Salt

Milk

I make the rolled out flat dumplings.  There is no fat in my dumplings.

Put about 2 1/2 cups of flour in the bowl.  Add at least 2 teaspoons of salt, more if you like things salty.

Mix that together and add milk a little at a time until you have a wet batter, kind of like biscuit dough.

Turn it out on a well floured board.  You want them to be  floury when you put them in the pot so they will thicken the broth.  Knead it a few times until you have a smooth dough.  Roll it out about 1/4 inch and cut in squares.

Drop them one at a time (that's important!) into the boiling stock and let them cook until they are firm.  Tast them if you need to in order to make sure.

Meanwhile pull all the chicken off the bones and shred in generous pieces.  Discard all the bones and skin.  Add the chicken back to the pot and let it come to a slow boil again. 

 Add in 1 can of Cream of Chicken Soup, stirring to dissolve.  Taste and add more salt and pepper as needed.  If it doesn't thicken up as much as you would like, add in some slurry(cornstarch and water).  Let it simmer a while to meld the flavors and dish it up!  I like mine with corn muffins.

Enjoy!

SG