This is Southern style Chicken & Rolled Dumplings. It's made the same way my family made it for many decades.

Dissolve 2 teaspoons Kosher or Sea Salt in a pot of water. The thawed, whole chicken needs to be covered in this salted water. Bring to a simmer. If using a whole chicken, I pick a smaller bird, avoiding the huge broiler chickens.

Simmer the chicken, don't boil. Don't skin the chicken before cooking it, leave it completely whole to cook. This maximizes the flavor, juiciness, texture and tenderness of the meat once cooked. After the chicken is cooked and chilled, it can then be skinned and deboned.

Please don't cook the chicken until the meat falls apart into threads. Once served, it's much more satisfying to spoon up flavorful, juicy chunks of chicken along with those tender dumplings.

When the meat is just beginning to pull away from the small end of the leg bones, take from the broth. Transfer the whole chicken into a bowl, cover, and chill it in the fridge while you do everything else.

-------------------

If I'm using thawed chicken pieces instead of a whole chicken, I cover the pieces in salted water, and simmer about 4 legs, or a mix of thighs and legs in salted water. I split the thighs in half. These will simmer for 30 to 40 minutes, just until the meat is pulling away from the small end of the leg bone, then they are transfered to a bowl to chill in the fridge.

If there are any undercooked pieces, they'll finish cooking when simmered with the dumplings. Small chicken pieces will cook in 30 minutes, large pieces will take longer to cook, so I try to keep everything about the same size.

--------------------

If using thawed chicken breasts, simmer them whole, unskinned and with the bones left in them. They can be skinned, deboned and made into spoon sized pieces right before being added to the dumplings. This method keeps the breast pieces much more juicy.

--------------------

Once the chicken is in the fridge to chill, take out 1 cup of chicken broth from the pot. Place that 1 cup of broth in the freezer to cool. This will chill it quickly. This cold broth is the liquid used to make the dumpling dough. You might not need the entire cup of broth to form the dough. Pour any unused broth back in the pot if it wasn't all needed to make the dough.

In a mixing bowl, add 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour. To that add 1 tsp kosher or sea salt, mix it up. You could also add a pinch of ground nutmeg or allspice to the flour mixture to gain the classic chicken and dumplings flavors. Mix this up well.

Add to the flour mixture 2 teaspoons of either softened lard, tallow, shortening or butter. Mash and cut the fat into the flour mixture until it looks like coarse cornmeal. I use a spoon.

The purpose of the fat is to ensure soft, tender dumplings. Without fat in the dough, the dumplings will be tough, or hard and chewy.

To the flour/fat mixture add 1 whole beaten egg, then add the cool chicken broth. Fold this over repeatedly until it is mixed and forms a ball of dough. Try not to over work the dough, work with a light touch. It's much easier to do this by hand, rather than with a spoon.

If the dough is too dry, add a teaspoon of milk or cool broth, then fold together. Repeat this step until it softens and becomes a workable doughball.

The difference between rolled dumpling dough and biscuit dough is: with dumpling dough there will be no leavening at all, and the liquid used is chicken broth. Except for those differences, it's pretty much the same as biscuit dough.

These are Rolled Dumplings. They are a type of flat, thick noodle, so there is no baking powder or any leavening in it. These aren't meant to rise, puff or float, they're a thick noodle, and will be distributed all through the pot. Please don't use self rising flour.

Flour the surface you'll be rolling these on. Place the dough on the floured surface and sprinkle more flour on top of the doughball. Begin rolling this out. It doesn't need to be perfectly shaped.

Roll the dough about 1/8 inch thick, or slightly thinner. You can use your hands to pat it to 1/8 inch thick, I often do it that way.

Cut the rolled dough with a pizza cutter or knife into squares or rectangles. I make my dumplings spoon sized. They don't need to be cut perfectly, just cut the dumplings into spoon sized pieces.

Now leave the cut flat dumplings on the floured surface to partially dry while skinning and deboning the cooled chicken.

Pull the meat from the bones by hand. Please don't use a knife, as the meat will be drier if cut. Make the pieces spoon sized. Larger pieces are perfectly fine if desired. Discard the bones and skin. Chill the chicken pieces while cooking the dumplings.

Taste the broth to see if it needs any salt. You'll need roughly 3 or 4 cups of chicken broth to cook the dumplings in. I say this because everyone likes their chicken and dumplings different. Some will want lots of broth, while others want only a little sauce with their chicken and dumplings, so make this the way you want. In my opinion, the dumplings cook better in 3 to 4 cups of broth, as they'll need room between them to cook well.

Bring the pot of broth to a boil. Once it's bubbling away, individually add a few dumplings at a time to the broth. Place the dumplings in different places in the broth so they don't stick together. Add 5 or so dumplings, give it a few seconds to cook, then add a few more. Keep doing that until all the dumplings are in the pot.

Cook the dumplings 15 minutes. Then reduce heat and gently add the chicken pieces to the pot. Give it a stir just enough to mix things. Don't stir lots, as too much stirring will break up the dumplings.

Turn the heat on low and simmer this on low heat for 30 minutes, covered.

The broth can be left as it is, or add 2 to 3 pats of dairy butter if you desire.

It should be slightly thickened by now from cooking the dumplings. However if you want a thicker broth, then mix a packet of dry chicken gravy mix with some broth, stir that until the mixture is well dissolved, then add that gravy mixture to the pot, stir in well, and simmer until thickened. (My elders used a couple of teaspoons of flour dissolved in water or broth if it needed to be thicker. The gravy mix trick is what I do).

The addition of milk isn't required, but many in my family would add a little milk at this point to give it a creamy sauce. If that's what I want, I'd add 1/4 to half a can evaporated milk, gently stir it in, then bring it back to a simmer. Milk makes it extra creamy-yummy.

Allow the chicken and dumplings to rest covered off the heat before serving. It will remain hot for about 45 minutes, which is plenty of time to make any kind of side you'd love to go with this.

For extra flavor, right before serving, add some freshly cracked black pepper.

I hope you enjoy your old fashioned Southern Chicken and Dumplings!