Chicken and Dumplings

1. Trim and cut the celery ribs in half. Peel the onion and leave whole.
2. Remove the chicken from its packaging. Remove the giblets, if included.
3. Place the chicken, celery, onion carrot, nd peppercorns in a large pot. Add water to barely cover the chicken.
4. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer and cook, covered, about 45 minutes or until the chicken is tender.
5. Remove chicken from the broth and allow to cool briefly. Store in refrigerator until needed.
6. Remove the celery, onion, carrot, and peppercorns from the broth. Store the broth in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight.
7. The recipe may be made up to this point and held for several days before proceeding. When ready to finish the chicken and dumplings, continue as follows:
8. Remove all skin and bones from the chicken. Discard the skin and bones and set the meat aside.
9. Skim the solidified fat from the broth and set it aside to use in the dumplings.
10. Place the broth, reserved chicken and parsley in a very large pot and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Taste for salt and add more if needed. While the broth is heating, make the dumplings.

Make the dumplings:

1. In a large bowl combine the flour, salt, baking powder and chicken fat (if there isn't enough fat from the chicken, add solid shortening to make a total of 3 tablespoons of fat). Use a pastry cutter or fork to mix the fat roughly into the flour.
2. Gradually add milk until the dough reaches a good consistency for rolling. The dough should be slightly less firm than a pie crust. If the dough seems too wet add a little flour. If too thick, add a little more milk.
3. On a well-floured surface, working with half of the dough at a time, roll the dumplings out as you would a pie crust. Using a sharp knife or pizza cutter, cut the dough into long strips or squares as you prefer.
4. Drop dumplings individually into gently boiling chicken stock. Continue until all the dough is used.
5. Cook approximately 20 minutes or until dumplings are cooked through. Stir several times while cooking to keep dumplings separated, but be careful not to break the dumplings when you stir.