Chicken and dumplings

Nothing quite says down home cooking like chicken and dumplings, does it?  Of course, depending on who you ask and where you're at geographically, "chicken and dumplings" can mean a lot of things.  Round, pillowy dumplings?  Or flat noodle-like dumplings?  Are there veggies and cream?  Or just plain broth?  There are as many chicken and dumpling recipes as there are grandmas in the world, and whatever you grew up on is what you love best.  My own grandmother made chicken and noodles, which are my fondest memory of holidays at her house.  Sadly, she passed away before I was old enough to have the sense to get the recipe from her, and I've never been able to find a recipe that replicates what she made.  I do know that she'd make up her dough and roll it out into paper-thin sheets, which she would cut into perfect noodles that she would let air dry on newspaper overnight (waking once at night to flip the noodles over).  I remember the chicken and noodles were very yellow and slightly thick, just right for pouring over her mashed potatoes and gravy.   If I could wish for any food, that would be it!

As for me, chicken and dumplings in my house is broth, chicken, and thick, flat dumplings.  That's it!  I do sometimes make the round dumplings, but I save those for chicken stew.

I cook the chicken and make the broth at the same time (fancy, right?)

To a stock pot, add your whole chicken, and onion, a couple stalks of celery, a carrot or two (I'm really precise with my measurements, huh?), salt, pepper, and a bay leave.  Add enough water to cover it all.  Bring it to a boil, skim off the yucky chicken foam that forms on the top, and cover it and let it simmer.  The longer, the better, as far as I'm concerned!  I put mine on in the morning and let it simmer most of the day.

After it's cooked through, remove the chicken to a strainer to drain and cool off.  Remove the veggies and bay leaf from the broth and then run a small hand strainer through the broth if you want to remove any little bits.  I leave the broth simmering so no gross germy things grow while my chicken is cool off.  Once the chicken is cool enough to work with, remove the skin and pull of the meat.  You can either shred or chop the meat, it's up to you.  One thing I will say is SAVE THE BONES.  You can save them to make bone broth to can or freeze for other meals.  It's worth it.  If you're not going to do it within a few days, put the bones in a freezer bag and do it later.  Dump the chicken in and bring the broth back up to a gentle simmer.

On to the dumplings.  This also doubles as a noodle recipe, so if you're feeling up to it, feel free to do that.  You'll need-

2-4 eggs (I usually use 4, but I've also used 2 or 3 when I've gotten to this point only to realize I'm nearly out of eggs, and they come out just fine)
2+ tbsp of water (start with 2 tbsp, and add more water if needed)
3 cups of flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda (you can omit the banking soda and salt if you're using self-rising flour)

Mix up the flour, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl with a whisk (or sift it if you'd like, I'm just lazy).  Make a little well in the center of the flour.  In a separate bowl, whisk up the eggs and 2 tbsp water.  Add them to the flour and start mixing (again, I'm lazy, so I usually use my Kitchen Aid stand mixer).  This is a stiff dough, but you'll need to add enough water to make it workable and to keep it from gunking up your hands.  Once the consistency is right, you lay it out on a floured surface (if you stuck with a small kitchen, and thus, teeny tiny workspace like me, divide the dough in half and do it in two batches).  Roll it out until it's as thin as you can get it (I usually give up around 1/2 inch) and then use a pizza cutter to cut it into diamonds.  Like this-

Drop them into your gently simmering broth that's now full of chicken, then put a lid on it and walk away for 20 minutes.  Don't peek.  Steam helps get you nice soft dumplings instead of falling apart or yielding horrid little cement things.  You'll be rewarded with this-

Salt and pepper as you like and dig in.