Texas Rancher Chicken -N- Dumplings - chicken

Method

• Place the washed whole raw chicken in a large pot, if you are using a whole chicken cover it with water.
• If you are using a package of chicken breast meat, cut into cubes raw, and pour about 6-8 cups of water over it.
• I don't really measure this out, but the liquid should be about halfway in your pot.
• Chop up one leek, white part only (or one medium sized onion alternatively).
• Add to the pot along with the chicken stock cubes and all of the dry spices, I really use about a pinch of each spice, but you should add to suit your own taste.
• On a medium heat, boil the Chicken and leek with spices until the chicken is totally cooked through.
• If you are using a whole chicken this will be around 1 hour, adding more water when necessary.
• If using cut up pieces it will be about 30 minutes.
• If using a whole chicken remove it from the broth and place in a separate bowl at this stage.
• You will now remove all the skin and bones from the chicken and disgard them, and put only the meat of the chicken back into the broth, you may want to let it cool a bit before handling it.
• If I am using a whole chicken I usually just put the breast and wing meat back into my dumplings, and save all of the dark meat for chicken salad sandwiches (different recipe).
• If you are using already cut up chicken for this recipe, you can simply proceed to the next step.
• Add fresh chopped celery and carrots and continue boiling with chicken.
• If you are using frozen vegetables, add them now and boil for about 10 minutes in the broth.
• Add cream of chicken soup and stir well, you may need to add more water, if it has boiled down a great deal.
• You may add as many or as few vegetables as you like.
• For me it depends on what I have on hand, the onion or leek is very important, but you can add any other vegies to suit your own taste.
• I have found that using the frozen mixed vegetables and frozen green beans turns out really yummy, and is much easier than cutting up all the celery and carrots.
• Either way it turns out nicely even without any extra vegies.
• Check the consistancy of your broth.
• It should be thick and soupy, but you want enough liquid in there to cook your dumplings properly, so add more water to suit, I usually don't need to at this stage.
• Dumplings:.
• Combine all dry ingredients in bowl, mix together well with a whisk.
• Add margarine spread and mix well with the whisk until it is combined well with the dry mixture and is crumbly.
• Add milk a little bit at a time pressing with a fork on the side until well mixed.
• You should now be able to handle the dough with your hands, you may need a little more or less milk.
• Quickly press the dough together with your hands creating a nice ball if it is too sticky dust with a bit of flour.
• Don't handle the dough very long, the less you handle it the lighter and fluffier your dumplings will be.
• Pinch off balls of the dough, loosely squeeze with your fingers and plop into the boiling soup.
• Your dumplings should be a bit smaller than a ping pong ball.
• Dumplings should completely dive into the soup getting totally covered with liquid then pop back up sitting on the top of the soup while cooking.
• Boil the dumplings UNCOVERED for 15 minutes in the chicken vegie broth.
• I repeat -- do not cover the pot while cooking the dumplings or they will end up soggy in the middle.
• Dumplings should be biscuit like in the center when done.
• Enjoy!