Granny's Chicken & Dumplings

Ingredients for the chicken soup part:

• 3 or 4 lb chicken cut up and de-skinned
• 2 stalks of celery cut up small
• 1 small/medium onion cut up small
• 2 1/2 - 3 quarts of water
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper

Ingredients for the dumplings:

• 2 cups of flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 Tbl softened butter/margarine
• 2 Tbl cut up parsley (I prefer fresh over dried)
• 3/4 cup nonfat buttermilk (I use 2% milk and it works ok)

Combine all the ingredients for the chicken soup in a big stock pot. Boil till chicken is tender and falls off the bone. Take chicken out and let cool some. Remove chicken meat from bone and cut up in bite size pieces and return to the chicken soup (you can refrigerate broth and chicken overnight and then skim off the fat if you want to).

In another bowl combine all the ingredients for the dumplings and mix well. (I just mix with a wooden spoon).

Now to finish - bring chicken soup (broth and chicken) to a boil and drop in pinches of the dumpling dough (pinches about the size of a hershey kiss). Add as many dumplings as you like - I usually add half of the dough and freeze the rest for another batch of soup next time. After adding the dumplings reduce heat to medium/low and cook another 10 minutes stirring occasionaly. Add more chopped parsley and a couple of dashes of paprika for extra seasoning if you like.

Thanks to Granny (Joyce) Skweres for this fabulous recipe.