Chicken dumpling soup

My roommate recently got married. We're from the South, the Memphis area. So, I'm familiar, in fact, a large fan of, chicken and dumplings. His wife, however, is from Wisconsin. So, we went up there for the wedding. One of the days up there, I stopped into a local restaurant for lunch. On their menu was a chicken soup, but instead of the usual (for my area) chicken noodle soup, they had chicken & dumpling soup. I was astonished, never in my 36 years of life had I ever put together chicken and dumplings and chicken soup. These people had, and it was good.

But, I thought it could be better. Had to "southern" it up some, so I did. This is also the point where I should note that I've attempted chicken & dumplings a few times, and only once was it anywhere near good. Edible was probably more credible a description. They would either disintegrate in the broth, or never cook through.

This time though, I was determined. I was sick, and chicken soup always makes me feel better.

So, I left work early, stopped at the local Wallyworld (was closer to the house than the Kroger), picked up some chicken thighs (I'm usually a breast man [haha], but the thighs have more flavor, therefore would do better in a soup. Plus they didn't have any breasts that weren't boneless/skinless and I needed that for the flavor), a couple of potatoes, some carrots (they are only good in tiny doses) and celery.

Got home, salted and peppered the chicken, tossed it in the oven to roast for an hour and change while I took a nap. Woke up, got the chicken out, got a pot, tossed in the veggies (cut up of course) and 2 of the thighs, some bones and the skin, and a bunch of chicken stock. Put it on low heat and took another nap. Next I made some dumpling going by the directions on the Bisquick box, with the exception of adding a bit extra mix. Tore off chunks, and tossed them into the soup and left them alone for about 30 mins or so. And here is the result:

That stuff was so good I had to make myself stop eating. The only thing wrong with it was I had made the dumpling slightly too large, but they cooked through well and were easy enough to cut apart with the spoon.