Gluten Free Chicken and Dumplings or Not

This has got to be my new favorite chicken dinner. It has just the right amount of salty yumminess and the sauce is thick. Perfect on a cold night, with a nice cup of hot apple cider.

Step 1
5 Carrots peeled, cut to bite size
3 Celery Sticks cut to bite size
1/2 Red Onion chopped to bite size
3 cloves of garlic smashed and finely diced
6 Chicken tenders
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
handful of parsley chopped
1 bay leaf
8 cups of water



Bring all of the above ingredients to a boil. Turn down to medium and let it stay at a rolling boil. You will see the water take on more of a yellowish color and it will reduce. Add 3 cups of extra water after an hour of cooking and reduce heat to low.

Step 2
3 tablespoons of butter
1 table spoon of olive oil
3 tablespoons of gluten free all purpose flour (I use Bobs Red Mill)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 1/2 cups of Step 1 broth

Melt the butter and olive oil together. Whisk in the flour. It should look almost paste like, if not spinkle a tiny bit more flour. Whisk in the broth until it becomes thick. You want it to be decently thick, but not a brick or stuck to the pan. Add more broth if needed. Remove from heat. Take a slotted spatula and take out the chicken from Step 1. Pour the gravy roux into the large pot with the broth and vegetables, whisk for about a minute until thicker. Let simmer over medium low heat, stirring occasionally to prevent burning or sticking. Chop up the chicken into desired sizes and put into the big pot with all the rest.
You can eat it as is and its delicious, even without the dumplings. Or here is the dumpling part.

2 cups pamelas baking and pankcake mix
1 cup heavy whipping cream or whole milk
2 tablespoons melted butter

Put the Pamelas mix in the bowl, make a well. Pour the whipping cream or milk into the well, slowly incorporate the two. Add in the melted butter and fold it until combined. Should be like a really sticky drop biscuit type of dough. If too "soupy" looking add a little more of the baking mix until its sticky. Take spoonfuls and drop them into the soup, until you have as many dumplings as you would like. Turn them over after a few minutes and continue to add in more of the dough. With what is left over I like to add in more flour until its more of a cookie dough consistency and coat my hand with flour and make very small balls out of it and bake at 350 until lightly browned. As just an added bonus for the next day when everyone has already eaten out the dumplings.