This is great comfort food.  The soup turns into a gravy as you cook the dumplings and the chicken shreds apart and the whole dish turns into this hot, stick-to-your-ribs gravy goodness that warms any winter day.

If you want to make this dish look pretty, you could roll the dough out about 1/2 thick and make nicely squared dumplings similar to how the dish is served at Cracker Barrel (the inspiration behind the recipe).  But over the years I have just come to pinch off small bits of the dough and throw it in the boiling liquid.  It puffs up like traditional dumplings, and saves time. You can choose to make the chicken broth or stock from scratch, but I always use home canned stock to save time.

Ingredients:

• 3qt. chicken broth
• 1-1/2 ts salt 
• 1 small onion sliced 
• 2 stalks celery, chopped 
• 1 clove garlic, minced 
• 1 bay leaf 
• 2ts parsley flakes
• 1 ts pepper
• 1tb lemon juice 
• 1-2c shredded chicken (or more if you like a more meaty meal)

Dumplings

• 2 c flour 
• 1tb baking powder
• 1-1/4ts salt
• Milk (about 1c)

Method

1. Pour the chicken stock and all vegetables and seasonings into a pot and begin heating it up.  Bring it to a boil, then simmer for about 20 minutes.  Once 20 minutes has passed add your shredded, cooked chicken.
2. Begin preparing the dough for your dumplings. I use a food processor because the dough comes together very quickly, but you can do it by hand too.  Add the flour, baking soda and salt together. The milk is added until the dough comes together to form a ball of dough – this amount may vary from time to time.  Using a food processor makes this process very quick.
3. When your dough is no longer sticky to the touch, you may choose to roll it out and cut it into squares, or pinch off small bits and add it to your simmering soup.  As the dough cooks, it will swell up, and a small amount of it will dissolve into the soup, turning it into a gravy like consistency.  Simmer the dumplings for about 20-30 minutes or until cooked through, then serve.