Chicken & Dumpling Soup

"As if you could kill time without injuring eternity." - Henry David Throeau, Walden

One thin I'm loving about being a part of a teaching team whose company I genuinely enjoy is that we're constantly sharing recipes. We're usually eating last night's leftovers for lunch the next day and the first few minutes of every lunch is an informal recipe exchange. That's where I got the recipe below and i LOVED it.

The soup in this post can be made quite easily if you use store-bought chicken stock and a pre-cooked roasted chicken. However, if you decide to make your own you'll need 2 days, one for prep, and another for making the soup. I bought a Wegmann's plain cooked chicken and used the meat and fat to make my soup. I didn't have the patience to use it to make my own stock.

I have to say it's the most comforting soup I've ever made. it was a big hit at my house and I even managed to pack some for lunch the next day. It freezes pretty well, but the dumplings absorb some of the moisture so you'll need to add more liquid if you're re-heating.

Chicken and Dumpling Soup

Chicken Soup Ingredients:

1 onion, diced

1 carrot, diced

1 rib celery, diced (with leaves, if possible)

1 recipe chicken stock (or two more boxes of chicken broth)

1 box low-sodium chicken broth (the 4-cup kind)

½ teaspoon dried thyme

1 cup frozen peas

Shredded chicken meat

Salt to taste

Dumpling Ingredients:*

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp olive oil or chicken fat (tastes better!)

2 eggs

enough warm water – add as you mix to make dough

Dumpling Directions:

1. Add flour and salt in bowl.

2. Make a well in the center and add eggs and oil/fat.

3. Mix together by hand or using dough blade slowly adding water until you have a smooth dough.

4. Lightly dust countertop or board with flour.

5. Turn dough out and knead for a few minutes by hand to create smooth texture.

6. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for 30 minutes.

use this time to prepare soup

Soup Directions:

1. In a large stock pot, sautee onions and carrots and celery in a bit of olive oil until translucent.

2. Add chicken stock, broth, and thyme and bring to slow boil (not rolling boil)

3. As soup comes to a boil roll dumpling dough out on lightly dusted counter top (1/4 inch thickness)

4. Using a knife or pastry wheel cut into 1" square pieces

5. Drop the dumplings into boiling soup a few at a time. Stir regularly so dumplings do not stick together.

6. After all dumplings are added put in frozen peas, stir, and partly cover.

7. Keep at simmer (not rolling boil) for 10 minutes or until pasta is cooked.

*the dumpling recipe is actually James Beard's pasta recipe and it works really well!

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#soup #chicken #dumpling #pasta #winter #food