Grandma's Chicken and dumplings

This recipe was my grandmother's recipe that my father used to make and now it's my turn. I cheat and use boullion rather than boiling down and picking whole chickens. We're a white meat kinda family, so the whole chicken thing doesn't fly so well here. Nanny used to get up at 5am and start making breakfast, supper was usually started by noon. She was old school southern. I start this soup pretty early in the afternoon and clean while it's cooking. The longer it cooks, the better it is. Second day is super yummy!

I add a whole lot more of everything than he used to, but then I'm cooking for 8 for two days with some lunches to go, a bowl for Dad and usually a bowl gets given to a friend. Which calculates to about 22 servings. The soup bowls are kinda big, too.

I have a pasta maker. It's a hand cranked deal that crafters are using for clay nowadays. I like to use it to make the noodles. I often have a child who is more than happy to crank the handle for me while I work the noodles. They like to drop the noodles in the pot as well. Kid fun, yay!

This can be an expensive dish if you really like the veggies. I'm just going to put a list of veggies that work well. Pick the ones you want and add them in until you're happy.

3 large cans of chicken broth
3 Goya chicken boullion cubes
6 Telma chicken bouillion cubes (really really good)
4 whole chicken breasts - skinless boneless
Lemon Pepper
Italian Dressing
3 tbs Minced garlic
2 - 3 tbsp Italian seasoning mix
Veggies, like......
Onion
Celery
Carrots
Snow Peas
Leeks
Scallions
Mushrooms
Squash
Zucchini
Red Potatoes

Trim the chicken breasts and put in a ziplock bag, coat them with italian dressing and put in the fridge until the oven gets to 350.

Chop veggies into bite sized pieces. Note: adding corn, broccoli or cabbage will drastically change the flavor. Try it without these first, then go ahead and play with the recipe.

Cook the breasts in a foil covered baking pan, generously spray greased with about a half cup of water in the bottom. Sprinkle the breasts on both sides with lemon pepper, seal the pan and bake for 40 minutes.

Get out the stock pot, dump in the broth and about 6 cups of water. Add the boullion cubes, Italian spices, garlic and the bite size cuts of veggies. I generally have about 6 cups of veggies. Bring to a boil, then simmer for about an hour. Add more water as it cooks if you feel it needs it.

Once the chicken has cooked, if there is liquid in the pan add it to the soup.
Chunk the breasts into bite sized pieces and throw them in the simmering pot.

Now it's time to make the noodles!

I generally do 3 -4 batches of dumplings (noodles), kids and adults steal them outta the pot before and after dinner...so if I don't make a ridiculous amount of noodles, I hear about it on second day.

1 cup Flour (not self rising unless that's all you have)
1 egg
1 tbs oil (use olive oil if you want to)
1/4t salt
Pepper - about 1/4 tsp, add more if you'd like
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning mix (to make the noodles look special)
a little water

In a bowl, add all dry ingredients, stir and make a well.
Beat the egg and oil together, then pour into the well.
Stir with a fork until it starts to hold together, then knead by hand.
Add water 1 tsp at a time until you get a nice elastic ball.
Rip the ball into halves. Grrrr! Show it who's boss!
Turn the soup up so it'll be at a nice rolling boil when you're ready to drop the noodles in.
I do my noodles in the crank machine to a setting of #5. (Start at #1 - twice, #3 - once, #5 - once)
If you're going low tech and want to roll them out by hand, it's about 1/8th of an inch thick when you get done.
I place my rolled noodle slab on a decently floured board and sprinkle more flour on it and stroke the flour to cover the entire slab. This extra flour is what thickens the soup. Don't use too little or too much. It should be a nice coating about like what you find on decent powdered donuts.
Cut the slab into 3/4 inch by 1 inch rectangles. It's ok if they're not perfect or perfectly square, they taste yummy anyway.

Drop the noodles one at a time into the bubbling center of the pot. After you drop about 20, give the soup a stir and keep dropping until you're out. Take note of the noodles. Yank one out and try it. Does it need more pepper? Is it too thick? Too thin? You can fix it for the rest of your noodles.

I tend to do my noodles one batch at a time so the dough doesn't dry out on me while I'm fighing people away from the soup pot and making more noodles with the help of a child and one or more curious cats.

Do the other half of your dough ball. Roll and drop.

Repeat until you have as many noodles as you want. Like I said, I generally do 3-4 batches. Once you have added all your noodles, turn the pot to a simmer and clean up the wreck you made while making noodles. By the time you're done and have dug all the noodle leavings out from under your nails (usually while grumbling about forgetting to take off your rings) the noodles should be cooked enough to eat.

At the very least, let the pot simmer for a half hour after the last noodle is dropped. It gives the flour a little more time to thicken the soup.

Taste the soup. Does it need anything? Adjust until you're happy.

Grab out the big bowls, you're about to be a dinner goddess.