from our mom, Susan Marshall Labunski

This is our go-to comfort food, especially for Sunday night family meals with kids and grandkids. We almost always make the Bisquick version, but the noodle version from our Pennsylvania Dutch forebears is tasty, too.

• 3-4 stalks celery, chopped
• 1-2 cups carrots, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• Whole chicken (or mix of chicken pieces – it doesn’t matter that much)
• Lawry’s salt
• Flour
• Bisquick baking mix

Cut up chicken and place in deep stockpot or Dutch oven. Add chopped celery, carrots and onion; cover with water. Sprinkle surface of water with Lawry’s salt. Bring water to boil; reduce heat, cover, and simmer for about 2 hours (chicken should be falling off bones). Pull chicken out of the pot, and put on plate to cool. Skim top of broth to remove any foam or odd-looking stuff floating on the surface.

Mix 1-2 tablespoons flour into a slurry in a cup of water, add to broth, stir well, and let simmer. While it is simmering, pull the skin and bones from the chicken, then add meat back to stockpot. Check seasoning, then raise heat and return broth to boiling.

Make as much dumpling mix as you need (the recipe is always on the back of the Bisquick box, or online, but it’s basically 1 cup of Bisquick for every 1/3 cup of milk). Drop dumplings by large tablespoonfuls (we use a soup spoon) onto the surface of the broth. Cook uncovered for 10 minutes, and covered for an additional 10 minutes. By the time the dumplings are cooked, the broth/stew will have thickened, and will be lovely ladled over the dumplings.

Pennsylvania Dutch Noodles

If you would like noodles instead of dumplings with your chicken, this recipe makes thick, chewy farm-style noodles.

For every 3-4 servings:

• 2 eggs
• Flour
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2-3 tablespoons ice water

Beat eggs lightly in medium bowl; add water and salt, then just enough flour to make a dough that can be rolled out. On well-floured surface, roll dough until thin; then roll dough into tube and slice across with sharp knife (or cut by looping unwaxed dental floss around tube). Unroll the strips of dough and drop into boiling soup. Cook for 15 minutes or until noodles are tender.

If you’re making these noodles to go with the chicken, you’ll want to make them while the chicken is cooking during those two hours. After you have sliced and unrolled them, spread them out on a couple of cookie sheets or on floured parchment paper. They’ll be perfectly fine left to dry for an hour or two.