Southern Chicken and Dumplings

You want to talk simplicity, this is 4 ingredients.  I remember seeing it on "Mind of a Chef" and I've wanted to make it ever since.  I forgot though until I saw a recipe pop up on social media.  Chef Sean Brock made it with his mother who learned it from her mother who learned it from her mother, and so on and so on...  Video of that is here.  Both videos in both links are totally worth watching for tips and method.

• 8 cups "Better than Bouillon" low sodium chicken stock
• 3 & 1/2 lb chicken
• 2 cups self-rising flour
• 2 cups buttermilk (all I could find was 1.5% fat)
• Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper, to taste

That's it!  I hoped I could do his mom's recipe justice.  Hers looked so good when I watched her make it.  I did put some fresh herbs into the broth.  I used Italian parsley, thyme, sage and rosemary.  He said the broth was key to this dish and I love fresh herbs in any broth so that was my addition.

I brought it to a rapid simmer and then put the chicken in. I left it bound with string so it would hopefully be easier to remove when done.

I brought the heat back up till it simmered gently with the chicken in it.  I covered and let it go for an hour, flipping it over at the halfway point.

I took the chicken and herb "Bouquet Garni" out and left the broth simmering.  I removed all the skin and bones from the chicken and put the meat in a bowl.  I seasoned it with S&P.

I measured out the flour (I made my own self-rising flour), the milk and stirred by folding with a spatula.  I added a ladle of broth to it, but otherwise it looked good and wet.  Too wet???

I took a tablespoon and tried to drop the batter over bubbling spots in the broth.

When done, I covered and set timer for 15 minutes.  Turns out I had the heat too high and heard it bubbling over, so I turned it waaaay down to very low.  When the timer went off I pushed dumplings over and scooped the chicken in.  I covered for another couple of minutes and served with more S&P.

So, this didn't work out like I wanted it to, the dumplings were small and didn't puff up and make one layer like in his videos.  They sank - heavy instead of light!  Could it have been the light buttermilk, the failure on heat temperature, too wet or homemade self-rising flour?  I don't know.  The good news is that it tasted fantastically great.  The gravy/broth and seasoning were spot on delicious.  The dumplings could have been fluffier and bigger like a biscuit (these were doughy, but cooked).  Meh outcome on that front, but overall yummy, nonetheless...  Comforting on this rainy night, and I will give it a re-do, to try and do justice to the dumplings - I want to make them perfect!