Chicken and Dumplings

Use a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store deli for this. Just get the plain roasted one. Do not use the BBQ or lemon-pepper chickens. Using a roasted chicken, rather than raw chicken, adds a big flavor boost. Quite by accident, I grabbed the beef bouillon cubes instead of the usual chicken bouillon when making this one day. The flavor depth this added was just fantastic.


1  rotisserie chicken
1  onion, quartered
2  carrots, peeled and chunked
1/2  cup  fresh parsley, use stems and all, (or 1/4 cup dried)
2  stalks  celery, cut into chunks
4  beef bouillon cubes (2 if you use Knoor brand)
2  bay leaves, optional
Fresh ground pepper


DUMPLINGS:
2-1/4  cup  flour
3  tsp  baking powder
1  tsp  salt
1  cup  milk

Remove any twine holding chicken together. Put the chicken in a large (wide) kettle and break apart. Fill pot with water to just cover ¾ of the chicken. Add the next seven ingredients. Bring to a boil and gently simmer for about 1½ -2 hours.

Remove from heat; strain broth into a large bowl. Cool the chicken and cooked vegetables until you can easily handle. Pick all the chicken from the bones. Set aside. Discard skin, bones, and vegetables.

If time allows, when the broth cools, refrigerate so fat can be skimmed from the top and discarded.

Add chicken to the strained broth and bring to a boil.

Combine the dumpling ingredients by gently mixing just enough to hold together. Do not over-mix. Dumplings should be rather moist. Drop by large spoonful into simmering broth. Do not crowd the pan. Cover (use a glass lid if you can) and simmer gently for 20 minutes. Do not lift the lid during the cooking time.