It’s a cold, rainy Sunday morning. The fireplace is sending waves of comfort throughout the house, and the prognosticators are forecasting the day’s NFL outcomes on the big screen. It’s a perfect day for Mom’s Chicken and Dumplings.

I made a few tweeks to Mom’s recipe; I roast the chicken instead of pressure cooking, and I season the dumplings. I’ve also found scratch dumplings superior to the pancake mix version.This adds a step or two but worth the time. If you like adding other vegetables, or mushrooms, cream (or cream of chicken soup), no rules it’s just soup.

1 whole chicken

2 tbls olive oil

6-8 cloves of garlic, diced

5-6 stalks of celery, chopped

3-4 carrots, sliced

1/2  onion chopped

3 bay leaves

2 tbls each; ground sage, thyme, beau monde (or celery seed)

Salt and pepper

For the dumplings

1 cup flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp ea. ground sage and ground thyme

1/2 cup milk + 2 tbls if needed

2 tbls vegetable oil

Line a roasting pan large enough to hold your chicken with half of the vegetables. Rub the chicken with the oil and season with half of the ground herbs, beau monde and salt and pepper. Place the chicken breast side down on top of the vegetables. cove and roast at 350 degrees in a preheated oven for an hour and 15 minutes. Remove the cover, raise the temp to 375 and brown the skin and vegetables for 15 minutes.

Remove from the heat and let cool. Pull the meat from the bones separating the breast from the rest. Place the chicken carcass and bones, vegetables and all the juices from the roasting pan into a large stock pot with 2 quarts of water, the bay leaves, and the rest of the seasonings. Boil uncovered for and hour. Remove everything except the liquid from the pot and discard, then add the all of the meat (except the breast), and all of the vegetables, simmer for 30 minutes uncovered and test for seasoning. Add salt and pepper as necessary. Cover and continue to simmer.

Mix the dry dumpling mix together in a bowl and the wet ingredients in another bowl. Pour the wet into the dry and mix. Adding the additional milk if the dough is not wet and sticky. Using a spoon or a small ice cream scooper (sprayed with cooking spray) spoon the mix into the simmering liquid and simmer covered for approximately 12 minutes.

Place some reserved breast meat in each bowl, ladle in some soup and a couple of dumplings and settle into your favorite chair.

Enjoy-RTK