Big Thicket Chicken And Dumplings

Total Time: 3 hrs Preparation Time: 1 hr 30 mins Cook Time: 1 hr 30 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 8
• 1 (3 -4 lb) whole chickens
• 1 gallon water
• 1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon red pepper (optional)
• 2 celery ribs, chopped
• 4 green onions, sliced thin or 1/2 medium onion, chopped
• 1 carrot, shredded
• 6 chicken bouillon cubes
• 6 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup margarine or 1 cup butter flavor shortening
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 cups chicken stock

Recipe

• 1 place whole chicken and water into large pot or dutch oven.
• 2 add poultry seasoning, garlic powder& pepper.
• 3 bring to boil and reduce heat to medium.
• 4 cook chicken for about 1 hour or until tender.
• 5 when done, carefully remove chicken from pot; set aside to cool.
• 6 remove 2 cups of stock and set aside to cool.
• 7 add celery, onion, carrot and bouillon cubes to remaining stock and continue to cook on simmer.
• 8 while chicken is cooling, prepare dumplings.
• 9 into large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, poultry seasoning and salt.
• 10 add margarine and combine until mixture is coarse and crumbly.
• 11 (use a hand mixer) add eggs and cooled chicken stock (be sure your stock has cooled to"just barely warm") then stir by hand to form a dough.
• 12 turn out onto floured surface and knead slightly until smooth.
• 13 you may need to divide dough in half and only roll out half at a time.
• 14 roll out to approximately 1/8-inch thickness.
• 15 using a sharp knife or pizza cutter, cut dough in vertical strips about an inch wide.
• 16 then repeat the process, cutting horizontal strips, which will give you little square dumplings.
• 17 return chicken stock to a boil; drop dumplings in, a few at a time, as quickly as possible.
• 18 cook about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent dumplings from sticking to bottom of pan.
• 19 when done, remove from heat and cover pan.
• 20 remove skin and debone cooled chicken.
• 21 cut into bite size pieces then fold into hot dumplings & broth.
• 22 this recipe will serve a family of 4 two main course meals.
• 23 leftovers can be frozen.