Old Fashion Chicken and Dumplings

Ingredients

1 small chicken or 8 pieces of chicken (white or dark meat according to taste)

3 stalks of celery – large chop

2 medium onions – large chop

3 bay leaves

2 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

2 cloves of garlic minced

2 ¼ cup Bisquick

½ Cup plus ⅔ Cup Whole Milk

½ Cup Heavy Cream

½ stick of unsalted butter

Parsley – minced

Preparation

Place chicken in a 6-8 quart stock pot and fill with enough water to fill within 3 inches of the top of the stock pot.

Add Celery, onion, bay leaves, salt and pepper to the water.

Place on stove top on medium-high and bring to a boil then reduce to simmer. Simmer until chicken meat is falling off of the bone. Add water during cooking if water level decreases below half of the stock pot

Once meat is fully cooked and falling off of the bone, Using a large slotted spoon, remove all of the chicken, celery and onion from the stock pot to a platter (keep all of the water in the stock pot) and allow chicken to cool until it is cool enough to touch. Remove all of the meat from the bones. Shred into bite sized pieces. Discard the bones and any large chunks of onion and celery. Remove the bay leaves and discard.

Replace the chicken meat back into the stock pot and set burner temperature on medium. Add garlic to the water.

As the chicken and stock reheat, mix the bisquick and milk in a large bowl. Dough will be sticky. Once mixed, turn out onto a heavily floured board and knead (adding more bisquick as needed) until the dough feels slightly rubbery and is no longer sticky. Flour the top of the dough ball and roll out into a large thin circle. Dough should be about ⅛” thick.

Using a butter knife (turned upside down), cut dough into long strips that are 2 inch wide noodles. Do not let the noodles stick together. Do not worry if there is a lot of extra flour on the noodles – this will only serve to thicken the liquid – which is delicious!

When the chicken stock has reached a full boil, begin adding the noodles one at a time into the boiling stock. The noodles will puff up and float to the surface and may cover the entire surface. Using a wooden spoon, gently push noodles to the side so that you can add more noodles into the space created. Add noodles quickly until all noodles are added. Do Not stir the pot as the noodles will break into small mushy pieces.

Allow noodles to cook by floating at the top of the boiling stock for several minutes (about 5 minutes) until done. Using a wooden spoon, gently spoon hot broth over the tops of the floating noodles to help them to cook.

The noodles are done when they begin to sink into the broth – gently stir with a wooden spoon. You might want to get one out and test it for doneness (that is what I do). When noodles are done, reduce heat to a slow simmer and add milk, cream and butter to the stock pot. Salt and Pepper to taste. When heated through, serve and garnish with fresh minced parsley.