Southern Style Old Fashioned Chicken And Dumplings Recipe 435

Steps:

• In a heavy pot with a lid place the chicken, onion, lemon, salt, pepper, water, bay leaf and thyme. Simmer all over low heat until tender, about 1 hour.
• Let chicken cool slightly in pot, then remove and take the meat off of the bones. Discard the bones and skin and skim excess fat off the broth if desired. Discard the onion, lemon and bay leaf. If desired, wash out pot well. Return broth and chicken pieces to the pot. Simmer over low heat while making the dumplings.
• To Make Dumplings: In a medium mixing bowl, cut shortening into the flour and salt. Stir in 1/4 cup water (more if needed) to form a soft dough. Roll out dough on a floured surface, with a rolling pin, until very thin. Cut into 1 inch wide strips using a pizza cutter or knife. Tear off 1 inch long pieces from these strips and drop into simmering broth and chicken meat. Simmer for 10 minutes with the lid off, then 10 minutes more with the lid on. Serve immediately.

Steps:

• Place chicken breasts and butter in large stock pot. Salt and pepper to taste. Fill stock pot with chicken broth until chicken is covered by an inch or so. Slowly simmer chicken until falling off bone. Remove chicken and place in refrigerator or freezer to cool rapidly for handling later. Add more chicken broth and cover stock pot and keep at simmering temp. On large flat surface for rolling out dumplings, make circle with 4 cups of plain flour, leaving center open. In the center add egg, salt, 1 cup of hot chicken broth from pot. Slowly incorporate with flour with hands. Be careful though. The dough will be very hot at first and stick to you like napalm! But tough it out! Once well kneaded, pinch off thirds and roll out with rolling pin using extra flour on pin and on dough so it won't stick. Roll out approximately 1/16 inch thick. Roll it thin. Score into 1"x2" strips. Lift and place on separate plate, flouring both sides of dumplings so they won't stick to one another. Repeat until all dough is used. Next steps must be followed exactly: uncover broth. Bring it to a high rolling boil. Add all dumplings at one time, give it a quick stir to separate dumplings. Cover with lid, turn heat down to medium-low or lower if it starts to boil over. Cook for 20 minutes, but do not remove lid during cooking. Do not peek, do not stir! While dumplings are cooking: skin and de-bone chicken then shred into bite sized pieces. After dumplings are done, fold in chicken; being careful not to tear the dumplings apart. Also you can use the spoon to separate any dumplings that may have stuck together during cooking. They readily come apart. Enjoy! Like any kind of stew or soup, they are much better the next day! Keep some broth on hand to help stretch the dish out.