Old Fashioned Chicken And Dumplings

Total Time: 1 hr 45 mins Preparation Time: 45 mins Cook Time: 1 hr

Ingredients

• Servings: 6
• 1 chicken, cut into pieces (during the holidays you can get a fresh hen)
• 2 quarts cold water (always put your raw chicken in cold water &ndash, you&rsquo,ll get a much richer broth)
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 onion
• 1 carrot
• 1 stalk celery
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 cup butter
• 12 ounces evaporated milk
• 2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup shortening
• 5 -7 tablespoons cold water

Recipe

• 1 add the chicken to the stew pot.
• 2 add salt, onion, carrot, celery, and black pepper.
• 3 cover with cold water and bring to a low boil.
• 4 foam will form on the water as it begins to boil.
• 5 skim the foam from the water.
• 6 stew chicken until tender with the salt, onion, carrot and celery ribs, about 40 – 60 minutes after liquid gets to a low boil. cooking time depends on the size of your chicken or hen.
• 7 remove the chicken from the broth and discard the vegetables.
• 8 while the chicken cools, make the dumplings. mix 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour.
• 9 1 teaspoon salt.
• 10 1/3 cup shortening.
• 11 5-7 tablespoons cold water.
• 12 work the dough and roll out on a floured surface.
• 13 roll out the dough very thin about ⅛”.
• 14 cut into 1′ wide strips and let dry for about 30 minutes.
• 15 remove chicken from the bones.
• 16 cut or pull the chicken into desired-size pieces.
• 17 add pepper and butter to broth and heat to simmering. broth should look peppery and taste great.
• 18 add 1 can evaporated milk to broth.
• 19 before adding your dumplings to the milk broth, add a touch of grated nutmeg to the broth.
• 20 add the chicken pieces and heat. (broth needs to be several inches above the chicken for the dumplings to have enough room to cook.).
• 21 add the dumplings to the low boiling broth a few at a time to keep the broth at a boil.
• 22 cook 10 minutes in the low boiling broth. (if you boil your broth too high, your dumplings will disappear or clump together.).
• 23 remove from heat and let rest 10 minutes and serve.