Recipe For Crock Pot Chicken That Does Not Involve Cream of Anything Soup

The original recipe is called "Crock Pot Chicken and Dumplings". I can't remember where I got it...possibly the red and white checkered Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. I will put the original recipe first, then I will tell you what I actually did =).

4-6 potatoes, cut up
2 carrots, cut up
14 oz. chicken broth
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. pepper
2 lbs. chicken

In crock pot, mix potatoes and carrots. In a medium bowl, combine broth, flour, and spices and blend well until smooth. Pour over vegetables in crock pot. Add chicken. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. Cook on high for 20 minutes while preparing dumplings.

Dumplings
In a small bowl, combine 2 cups of flour, 1 Tbls. Baking Powder, 1 tsp. salt. cut in 2 Tbls. of butter until crumbly. Add 1 cup of milk. Mix just until combined. Drop by spoonfuls onto hot chicken mixture in crock pot. Cook on high for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center of a dumpling comes out clean.

I have made the recipe this way, and it was good! I remember being impressed that the dumplings would actually cook in the crock pot in 20 minutes.
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This is what I did for dinner yesterday:

2 cups of uncooked brown rice
7 red potatoes, washed and stabbed once with a knife
5 carrots, washed and cut in half
2 cans of chicken broth
1/2 cup white flour
1/2 cup wheat flour
4 tsp. salt
4 tsp. onion powder
4 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. pepper
4 lbs. chicken thighs (on sale for $0.50 per pound!!)

Put the rice in the bottom of the crock pot. In a medium bowl, mixed broth, flour, and spices and blended until smooth. Poured that mixture over the rice. Placed potatoes and carrots in a lovely artistic design on top of the rice. Placed chicken on top of vegetables. Sprinkled garlic salt and celery salt on top. Cooked on high for 5 hours. (Next time I will try cooking on low for 8 hours or on high for 6 hours.)

Results: It was delicious! However. I cooked it on high for 5 hours because of when I had made it home from grocery shopping and was able to get everything in the crock pot. While I was watching it cook, it looked like I had put in too much liquid, and when we sat down to eat, the rice wasn't quite done and the carrots were firmer than usual. (The potatoes were EXCELLENT! Perhaps they had such a delicious flavor because they were from a new crop?) I left the crock pot on for another hour and then let it sit for an hour after I turned it off, and when I checked on it, the rice was perfect because the extra liquid had cooked in to it.