Easy Chicken-N-Pastry - cooking recipe

Ingredients

1 whole chicken
1 -2 bay leaf
water
salt and pepper
1 (1 1/2 lb) box frozen dumplings, strips
1 can campbell cream of chicken soup

Preparation

Rinse chicken and discard giblets.
In a large pot boil the chicken with bay leaves, salt and pepper.
Remove the chicken to a platter to cool; once cool enough to handle, remove meat from the bones.
Skim the fat from the broth and add enough water to get 4 or 5 qts (I use a skimmer cup).
Bring broth to a rolling boil and drop the frozen pastry strips in a few at a time, stirring to separate and return to a boil before dropping in more.
When all the strips are in the pot, reduce heat to medium-low and let boil a few minutes.
Reduce heat to low and stir in chicken meat and cream of chicken soup, stirring until chicken soup is incorporated.
Season to taste with black pepper- should already be salty enough from the cream of chicken soup, but taste and add salt if necessary.
Remove from heat, cover and let stand 15 minutes before serving.
I serve this with cornbread; green peas are a good side dish.