Comfort Food - Chicken and Dumplings
My Chicken and Dumplings
For the cool winter days here in Florida, I like to make something that is delicious and wholesome that warms the belly. Chicken soup is an American staple that warms the soul and nourishes the body. Here is a creation of my very own delicious chicken and dumplings recipe. It is a chicken soup that is made with drop dumplings that are steamed. I’ve tried rolled dumplings, but these drop dumplings are so much easier to make and tastes delicious in the soup.
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My Chicken and Dumplings Recipe
Ingredients for the Chicken Soup
8 pcs of raw Chicken - any combination (wings, thighs, drumsticks, breasts)
Or 1 whole Chicken - cut up
1 cup Carrots – baby carrots or cut into large chunks
4 stalks Celery – chopped or sliced
1 whole Onion - chopped
1 Bay Leaf
1/4 cup Parsley - chopped
4 Tbsp Butter (half of a stick)
4 Tbsp All-Purpose Flour
6 cups of Chicken stock or broth (water can be used instead)
Salt (add for desired taste)
Black Pepper (add for desired taste)
Directions for the Chicken Soup:
In a large pot, brown the skins of the chicken and then add the chicken stock. Let the chicken stock come to a boil then turn down the heat to simmer. Cook for about one hour on low heat.
Then when the chicken is cooked, take the meat off the bones, discard the bones.
Add the prepared chopped vegetables (carrots, celery, onion), bay leaf, and parsley back into the pot with the chicken meat and the broth.
On low heat, simmer and cook the chicken and vegetables for another hour until the vegetables are soft.
In a separate small pan over medium heat, melt the butter and add the flour to make a roux. Stir in the flour until it is absorbed into the butter. Cook for about three minutes.
Then add the roux to the pot of chicken and vegetables. This will thicken the broth. Stir in the roux for about ten minutes and the broth will thicken.
Now the chicken soup is ready for the dumplings to be added.
Ingredients for the Dumplings:
1/2 stick of Butter
1/2 of an Onion – grated or minced
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp of favorite Herb chopped – such as Parsley, Sage, or Thyme
1/8 tsp Salt
1/8 tsp Black Pepper
1 ½ cup All-Purpose Flour
2 Eggs
1/4 cup Milk or Broth
Directions for the Dumplings:
On low heat in a medium sized saucepan, melt butter and add the prepared onions. Cook for about two minutes. Don’t brown the onions.
Remove the pan from the heat and add the dry ingredients – the herbs, salt, pepper, flour, and baking powder. Stir in the pan.
In a bowl, scramble the eggs and add the milk. Add the egg mixture into the pan. Stir until it looks like mashed potatoes.
Now prepare to steam the dumplings. In a steamer, drop teaspoonfuls of the batter on the rack. Steam for about five minutes.
After the dumplings are steamed then add them to the chicken soup.
Garnish with parsley and Enjoy!
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Additional Tips and Information:
You can make this soup with a cooked rotisserie chicken. Just take the meat off the bones and start your soup.
You can make the chicken soup in a crock pot. Just add the chicken and vegetables. Then debone the meat when it starts to fall off the bone. Discard the bones and add the meat back to the crockpot and cook a little longer. When the chicken is cooked and the vegetables are soft, add the roux and stir it in the soup to thicken. Then add the dumplings.
Be sure to add chicken wings to the soup even though it does not have a lot of meat on it, it will make the broth have a more delicious chicken flavor.
Before I had a proper steam pot, I used to use a metal colander in a perfect sized pot. The colander would sit on the rim of the pot without falling into the water bath and I placed the pots lid on top of the colander to steam my dumplings.
