Tex-mex chicken dumplings

Ingredients

For the chicken:

• 1 four-pound chicken
• 16 cups of water
• 1 onion
• 9 cloves of garlic, divided
• 2 carrots, peeled and cut into quarters
• 4 celery stalks, cut into quarters
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tablespoon dried or 1 stalk fresh epazote, optional
• 1 leafy stem of cilantro, plus 1/4 cup of cilantro, chopped
• 1 can of Ro-Tel
• 2 jalapenos, sliced
• 1/4 cup cilantro
• Juice of one lime
• 1/2 cup of cream
• Salt, black pepper, cayenne and cumin to taste

For the cornmeal dumplings:

• 1 cup cornmeal
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1 tablespoon melted butter
• 1 jalapeno, finely diced
• 2 tablespoons of minced cilantro

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Preparation

• Clean and rinse your chicken and place in a large stock pot. Add water, onion, 8 cloves of garlic, carrots, celery, bay leaves, epazote and whole cilantro stem. Add salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil and then simmer for an hour and a half, occasionally skimming the foamy scum off the surface.
• Remove chicken from pot and turn off the heat. After it?s cooled, remove fat and pick the meat off the bones and either shred or cut into bite-sized pieces. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper to taste.
• -Take cooled broth and strain and throw out the vegetables as theyve done their duty. Now you need to remove the fat from the broth. If you don't have a preferred way of getting rid of the fat or lack a gravy separator, you can try the plastic bag method. Take a quart-sized plastic storage bag, pour some broth into it.
• Will see the fat rise to the top. Snip a bottom corner of the bag and drain the broth, stopping when you get to the fat layer.
  
• Place the broth back into the pot and add the shredded chicken and lime juice. In a blender, add the can of Ro-Tel, sliced jalapenos, chopped cilantro and garlic and blend. Add puree to the pot. Now add the cream. Add salt, black pepper, cayenne and cumin to taste.
• Bring to a boil. And while the soup is coming to a boil, make the cornmeal dumplings.
  -Sift together the cornmeal, flour, baking powder and salt. Beat the milk with the eggs and add to the dry ingredients. Stir in the melted butter, cilantro and jalapenos.
• When soup is boiling, turn heat down to low and gently drop the dumpling batter into the pot, one tablespoon or so at a time. Do not stir. Place lid on top and steam dumplings for 20 minutes.
• Ladle the chicken and dumplings into bowls and sprinkle cilantro on top. Serves six to eight.

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