Crock Pot Chicken and Dumplings

I've seen a lot of recipes for crock pot chicken and dumplings but none of them looked right to me.
I make chicken and dumplings the same way my mom does, with just chicken and dumplings. No vegetables or noodles or anything else. Until recently I did this on the stovetop in a huge pot, exactly the same way she has always done it.

One day I decided I really could make this easier, and to my surprise it totally worked!

• One pound of boneless skinless chicken breast or thighs
• 6-8 cups chicken broth*
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 recipe dumplings, to follow

1. Place the chicken and 6 cups of broth in the crockpot on low for 6-8 hours. 
2. Turn crock pot to high. Remove chicken from crockpot and shred with forks.
3. Drop dumplings into broth. Once all of the dumplings are in pour the chicken in on top of the dumplings. Stir carefully. It will look like a huge pillowy mass. 
4. If the chicken and dumplings mixture is too thick add more broth and stir carefully. 
5. Allow to cook for about 20 more minutes. The dumplings will start to separate and some of them might disappear, but it's ok, they thicken the sauce/gravy.
6. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve. 

Dumplings**:

• 2 cups self rising flour
• 2 Tbsp. margarine, softened
• 1 cup buttermilk

1. Mix all ingredients until incorporated.
2. You can either flour your working surface and roll out the dough, then cut it into 1-2 inch squares or (what I do) just pinch pieces of the dough off and drop them straight into the chicken broth. 

Cooking notes:

* I run out of chicken broth frequently, sometimes I just use water and chicken buillon cubes according to the package directions.

** If you have a favorite biscuit recipe feel free to use that. You can also use cans of refrigerated biscuit dough cut into fourths, or dumplings from your grocer's freezer section. 

If you want a more detailed recipe, or just one with vegetables, look here.