One Big Dumpling

Here is a great recipe for chicken and dumplings. I will write the instructions so you don't make "one big dumpling" - I'll explain later.
Chicken
Season nice (as opposed to naughty) pieces of chicken (I remove the skin from mine), flour, and brown in 1/4 inch oil in dutch oven (yes, another nationality will work, but not as well). Drain on paper towels, pour off oil and return chicken to skillet. Cover with water or chicken broth and simmer until tender, about 20 - 30 minutes. Have liquid just to top of meat, but not covering and drop in dumplings in slightly larger than golfball size spoonfuls.

Dumplings
1 1/2 cup of flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 3/4 teaspoon salt - sift these together
3/4 cup milk and 3 Tablespoons oil - mix these together
Pour liquid mixture into flour mixture and beat the heck out of it. The mixture should be light, probably a little sticky, definitely not one big lump. Drop, by spoonfulls onto meat with liquid boiling hard. Cook uncovered for 10 minutes. Then cover and cook 10 minutes more. The chicken and dumplings are now done. You have tender chicken and fluffy dumplings with tasty gravy.

Three weeks ago, we worked with the "B" shift at our M31, AFD's E43. This was the same day that Jaime came to our station with her play group. We offered to cook the "wagon". The wagon is community dinner. One person cooks, everyone eats. So I made chicken and dumplings. I left detailed instructions for every step of the way in case we got a call. We did get a call at about the time I had put the chicken in the pot covered with liquid. Once we had our patient loaded and were on our way for a veerrrrry long transport, I called the station to check on things and let them know we wouldn't be back for a while. It was like this:
FF "I mixed the stuff up, but it was just one big clump."
Well, add a little more milk.
FF "Too late."
You already put the dumplings in the pots?
FF "Yeah, but it's just one big clump...well, I divided it in two, between the two pots."
They needed to be dropped by spoonfuls.
FF "I gotta go." Click.
Fortunately, our commander had stopped by the station at that very moment and helped them break up the clumps. They still turned out tasty, just not fluffy. We got back about 2 hours later, ate one bite and left on another call. Returned about an hour and a half after that. Cold chicken and dumplings are good, but do try to make them when you can sit right down to dinner, because that is when they are fab - u - lous!