Chicken and Dumpling Soup

For all of you experiencing cold snowy weather like us, this is a great, comfy, warming soup.  It's called Chicken and Dumpling soup, and it comes out of Michael Symon's Live to Cook cookbook.  This took time, because you have to cook the chicken first, then refrigerate for a few hours or overnight, then recook and add dumplings.  It really does have a great flavor.  The boys gave this a 7, because they aren't huge fans of soup, and Aaron and I gave it an 8.  I like that the dumplings were so light, not heavy and bready.  I will post the directions the way I made this.

Soup:
1 T unsalted butter
2 carrots, finely diced
2 parsnips, finely diced
1 onion, finely diced
1 celery root, finely diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
Kosher Salt
2 quarts chicken stock
1 whole chicken, about 3 lbs
2 bay leaves

Dumplings:
unsalted butter, if needed (I didn't need this)
1 c whole milk
1/2 t kosher salt
1/2 t pepper
1/2 t nutmeg
1 c flour
2 t chopped fresh tarragon
3 large eggs

To make the soup, add all the soup ingredients to a large crockpot and cook for 10 hours on low at least.  Let cool, remove the bones and shred the chicken, then cool in the fridge overnight.  When ready to serve, remove chicken fat and reserve, dump contents into a large soup pot, bring the soup to a simmer, then make the dumplings.
To make the dumplings, measure the reserved chicken fat.  You will need 1/2 c, and if you don't have enough, use butter to make up the difference.  Bring the milk and the fat to a simmer over medium-high heat in a saucepan.  Add the salt, pepper and nutmeg.  Remove the pan from the heat and add the flour, stirring with a heavy wooden spoon until the flour has absorbed all the milk and the resulting dough pulls away from the sides of the pan.  Add the tarragon and then the eggs, one at a time, stirring until each egg is incorporated.
Drop the dumplings into the soup in tablespoon sized amounts.  Simmer the dough for about 10 minutes, then serve when all is heated through.