Miss Cindy's Homemade Chicken and Dumplings

This is such an easy recipe! Instead of making dumplings like my grandma used to make, I simply rolled mine out and cut them into small squares...sort of like a big flat noodle...but a dumpling! It was SO easy and so worth the extra time, because it just doesn't get any better than this! HOMEMADE! (Although there is a can of soup involved, for extra richness)

INGREDIENTS:

1 chicken, cut up (you can buy chicken already cut up if you don't want to do it)

3 ribs celery, chopped

1 large onion, chopped

1 teaspoon dried thyme

2 chicken bouillon cubes

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon shallot salt (of onion salt)

1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

1 can cream of chicken soup

DUMPLINGS:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

ice water

DIRECTIONS:

Place the chicken, celery, onion, thyme, bouillon, garlic powder, onion powder and pepper in a large pot. Add 4 cups of water, bring to a simmer over medium heat. Simmer until the chicken is tender, about 40 minutes. Remove chicken from the pot and let it cool. When chicken is cool enough to handle, remove meat from all the bones, and chop chicken into small pieces and place back into the pot. Keep warm over low heat.

To make the dumplings, mix flour and salt in a mixing bowl. Drizzle a small amount of ice water over the flour. Using your fingers, work the dough, and gradually add about 3/4 cup of ice water. Knead the dough and form it into a ball.

Dust some flour onto a clean work surface. Roll out the dough, until it's about 1/8 inch thick. Let the dough sit four a few minutes.

Add the cream of chicken soup to the pot with the chicken. Stir well. Let simmer over medium-low heat.

Cut the dough into 1 inch pieces. Pull into halves, and drop into simmering soup. Repeat until all dumplings have been added. Do not stir once the dumplings have been added. Just make sure they are submerged and cook evenly. Cook until the dumplings are floating and not doughy, about 5 minutes. Serve the chicken, gravy and dumplings in a warm bowl.

It's so comforting and good!