Chicken and dumplings

I do a very simple dumpling out of Bisquick that the ladies in my family have always done (not looking to change that) but what about the preparation of the chicken itself? I've been stewing it or putting it in a slow cooker. Seems there might be a better way. Anybody?

I don;t know if this is better, but we roast our chicken when we make chicken and dumplings. We save all of the juices from the chicken and put them in the pot with the dumplings and shredded chicken. That's just how we've always done it.

What Jen said, with a little celery and onion too!

That sounds good. Would you suggest I use store bought chicken broth to make the dumplings in?

i'm on the same page as JenS. i buy two big bone-in breasts with the skin on and drizzle them with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. i roast them on a cookie sheet in a 350 degree oven for forty minutes and let them rest before picking off the meat. i've found that boiling the chicken extracts its flavor and roasting concentrates it.

i use store bought stock for everything! i love it! i like buying the reduced sodium kind so that i can control the seasoning in the dish.

Many thanks for the suggestions. This is what I wound up doing...
I salt and peppered 4 large chicken thighs and put them in a crock pot along with some slivered onions and celery. I added a splash of chicken stock. Slow cooked it all for about 3 or 4 hours. By that time all the meat was falling off the bone and very tender. Used a slotted spoon to lift out the solids and then poured the remainder into a large pot stovetop, added more stock, brought it to a boil and made my dumplings in that. Shredded the chicken meat and picked out the bones while the dumplings cooked and reunited everything before serving. It was great! I didn't roast the chicken as suggested but it wasn't boiled either. I agree with Jessie, I think boiling tends to make the meat 'leathery' and dull tasting. The slow cooking with just a bit of liquid really intensified the chicken flavor. Thanks again for everyones suggestions.

A few weeks ago, I had a hankering for a pot of chicken and rice soup. I picked up a roasted chicken (one of the larger ones) in the Deli at Kroger. It wasn't one of those little bitty chicks too little to take away from their mommas that you usually see there but a larger bird. I think it was about $8 and was seasoned with garlic and herbs.

Took that bird home, cut away both breasts, the legs and the thighs and refrigerated the meat. Broke up the rest of the carcass and just barely covered it with water in a stockpot. Added onion, celery, fresh bay leaves, salt and whole peppercorns. Left that to simmer for about 3 hours.

Later, I cut up the reserved large pieces of meat, strained the stock, salvaged as much meat as possible from the stock and the bones, combined the meat and the stock, added a brown and wild rice mixture, more onion, more celery and more seasoning.

Just awesome and this quick and easy process could work very nicely for a pot of chicken and dumplings too!