My aunt use to make the best homemade chicken and?!
Answers: dumplings. Do you have a recipe?
Grandma Bryan's Chicken and Dumplings
CHICKEN
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3-4 pounds chicken pieces (legs, breasts, thighs or whatever you wish to use)
1 small onion, chopped
2 ribs celery, thinly sliced
3 cups plus 1/2 cup water
1 bay leaf
3 chicken bouillon cubes
1 teaspoon salt
Black pepper, to taste
5 medium-size carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
DUMPLINGS
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup milk
1 large egg
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
For the chicken, heat the oil in a large Dutch oven or other large covered saucepan. Add the chicken pieces and brown them on each side for 2 minutes. Stir in the onion and celery. Sauté briefly. Add 3 cups of water, bay leaf, bouillon cubes, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer the chicken, covered, for 30 minutes. Remove the chicken, add the carrots to the pot, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes or until the carrots are tender. Meanwhile, remove the chicken meat from the bones. Whisk together the flour and the remaining 1/2 cup of water in a medium bowl until smooth. Add the mixture and the chicken meat to the simmering saucepan. Cover and continue to simmer. To prepare the dumplings, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and fresh parsley in a large bowl. Make a well in the dry mixture and add the milk, egg, and oil. Stir briskly to make a batter. For each dumpling, spoon a rounded tablespoon of batter into the simmering broth. Cover and simmer for another 13 to 15 minutes, without stirring. Ladle into wide soup bowls and serve hot. Makes 5 to 6 servings.
nfd?
Purchase a cut up chicken.Put it in a pot covered with water.Add celery,carrots,onion and salt and pepper.Slow boil this for at least and hour to hour and 45 min.Take chicken pieces out of the water(now broth) and let cool.Take the veggies out they did there thing.When chicken is cool enough to handle pick meat off and return to broth.Add new veggies diced.Bring to a simmer.Add cambells cream of celery(not the low fat/fat free one)stir into broth.Get bisquick(the stuff you make pancakes with) not the low fat one.follow directions on box for dumplings.I add a bit of fresh flat leaf parsley to the dumplings.This is really good and very easy.I've been doing it this way for 40 years.Mom did it that way too.
I'm sure you'll be getting a lot of good recipes for chicken and dumplings but one thing your aunt probably did that may not be mentioned in any of the recipes you receive is the fact that back in the "good old days", we used stewing chickens for making chicken and dumplings. They are older chickens that just don't do well when fried - too tough. So they required a long cooking time. They were simmered in water with onions, celery, bay leaf and carrots to get the most flavor. If they were simmered slowly, the meat would become very tender (same as you would when cooking a nice roast). The older chickens had more fat in them than the fryers you find in the stores today. So, whatever recipes you receive, you may find it just doesn't have that very special flavor - if your aunt used a stewing chicken. You might check with your local store to see if they carry stewing chickens. That doesn't mean the recipes you receive won't be good - I'm sure they will be. But that's the thing that made the recipe the best.