Grandmother Bea's Homemade Chicken & Dumplings

2 chicken hens
2 cups Seasoning Blend
2 lg eggs
4 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 lg bell pepper
3 lg celery stalks
4 tsp poultry seasoning
3 tbsp. minced garlic
Salt, pepper & all purpose seasoning

My grandmother actually made her dumplings with milk instead of the chicken broth. Also, to make the dumplings even richer, you can add some of the skimmed fat off the boiled chicken (you'll end up using less broth for your dough if you do this). Chicken & dumplings---GOOD STUFF!!

Chop celery stalks and bell pepper. Cut hens into pieces (thighs, legs, wings, etc.). Boil hens with seasoning blend, chopped celery and bell pepper, and other seasonings for 1 1/2 hours in a large Dutch oven until fully cooked. Once the hen is done, place 1 cup of stock in refrigerator to cool. Debone chicken & remove skin, return bones & skin to chicken stock and boil for another 30 min. Strain bones & skin from stock and set stock aside.

In a large bowl, add 4 cups of flour, 1 tsp salt and 2 eggs, and mix together until the consistency is like coarse meal. Slowly add cooled chicken stock to make stiff dough (about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of stock).

Using 1/3 of dough ball, roll out onto floured surface about 1/8 inch thick. Dust the top with more flour. Using a pizza cutter, cut dough into rectangular pieces.

Add cream of chicken soup to stock and bring to a rolling boil. Slowly and carefully, drop dumplings into hot broth. After all dumplings have been added, reduce heat to simmer. Add black pepper and stir slowly. Simmer 15 to 20 minutes. Add deboned & skinless chicken, stirring very slowly until meat is heated through.

Serving Size: makes about 30 1-cup servings