This recipe will serve 8-12 people, depending on the size of your bowl.  Half the soup & dumplin part of the recipe if need to.

Chicken

• 1 whole chicken
• a southwest seasoning or a rotisserie chicken seasoning
• 2 c. water

Soup Part

• Big pot
• 1 gallon of water*
• 1 c. masa flour, to thicken the juices

Dumplins*

• 4 c. all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2/3 c. butter flavored shortening
• 1 tsp salt(optional)
• 1 c. warm water

Roast your chicken, this can be done the night before if desired to save time.  I roasted mine in a cast iron pot with the lid.  Sprinkle the seasonings in the bottom of a oiled/seasoned pot.  Place chicken in pot and sprinkle desired amount of seasoning onto the top of the chicken.  Add the water to bottom, don’t pour over chicken it will wash off the seasoning.  Place in a cold oven if using cast iron, turn to 275 degrees for 2 – 3 hours.  You want the chicken to fall off the bone, another option is to cook in a slow cooker all day, that will help de-bone a chicken in no time.  Once cooked, remove meat from bone and add to the Big pot. *Save the broth from the chicken to add the the pot, run the juice through a fine mesh colander to remove any extra chicken bones and unnecessaries, and chunks of spices, you just want the flavor in the chicken and in the broth, you don’t want the seasonings to carry over to the finished product.

Once the meat is in the Big pot, add the strained broth from the chicken, water and masa flour. (Adding the masa flour as a thickener, put it in a small bowl and whisk with  a little warm water to get rid of lumps before adding to water/broth.)  Heat this mixture till slightly boiling/bubbly before adding dumplins.  You can make the dumplins while you wait for it to heat.

For dumplins; in a large bowl, add your dry ingredients, then your shortening, then your water.  With a spoon or fork, stir together till the water is absorbed and you can handle, you want to fold the ingredients together till dry ball forms.  Add bits of flour as needed to help with the stickiness, once you get a well blended dry ball of dough then your ready to form the dumplins.  For bite size pieces, pinch off a piece and roll in your hand to get about an inch to an inch and a half ball, then flatten in your hand.  Once flattened you can drop into the pot of bubbly juice.  The dumplins can also be rolled out with a rolling pin and cut larger if desired.

The dumplins are done when they float. Make sure that when you drop them in your pot that they slip past all the others to get to meet the bottom of the pot before surfacing, this doesn’t take long only a few seconds.  Don’t over cook too long after they are added because the juices could start denigrating the dumplins and then you’ll have chicken and mush.

Add salt and pepper to taste and serve.

*To cheat on the dumplins you can use can biscuits, flatten with rolling pin or hand on a floured surface, cut smaller or drop into the pot as is.  The butter flavored ones are good. Don’t use the flaky biscuits, use the home style type, or like the cheap ones you can get in a four pack.