Classic Chicken and Dumplings
I think chicken and dumplings has got to be one of my all time favorite foods that I never make.
Why don’t I make it more often? I wonder….. I really should make it more often because it is so amazingly comfy and warm and delicious.
Now that we seem to back to proper Fall weather around here (sort of, it’s still a bit rainy for my taste and I’m waiting for snow….) I am back to thoroughly enjoying this Soup of the Week assignment.
I simply love comfort food. It’s my favorite.
Summertime fresh and simple meals are wonderful but I always love the coming of Fall and the coziness of soups and bread and hot apple cider or tea and pie and baking and knowing that Christmas will be coming up next. Oh I just crave it!
This soup I created from a Taste of Home recipe I came across that sounded good? Except….it used all those nasty little pre-made cream of whatever soups that I loathe. Often times in these cases I will still follow the recipe and simply use my little homemade powder mix, but this time I decided to take on some of the flavors with creativity and skip the mix.
It turned out completely delightful with a twist of herb flavors and adding a few things I normally don’t to chicken soups and we all completely loved it.
- FOR THE STOCK
- 1 whole chicken
- 2 carrots
- 2 stalks celery
- ½ large onion
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 2 teaspoons whole peppercorns
- water
TO MAKE THE SOUP - ½ cup butter
- 6 carrots, diced
- 1 whole large onion, diced
- 2 stalks celery, diced
- 2 cloves garlic
- 4 ounces crimini mushrooms, sliced
- 1 tablespoon rubbed sage
- 1 teaspoon dried tarragon
- 2 cups milk
- ½ cup heavy cream
- salt and pepper to taste
FOR THE DUMPLINGS - 2 cups flour, I used whole wheat but all purpose is perfectly fine
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- ¾ - 1 cup milk
- Start by placing your whole chicken in a large stock pot or dutch oven.
- Toss in the carrots, celery, onion, salt and peppercorns.
- Cover the chicken with water and bring to a boil. Cook until the chicken is cooked, about an hour.
- Remove the chicken to a cutting board to cool, pour the broth through a sieve and set aside.
- In the same pot, melt the butter over medium heat and then add the carrots, onion, celery,and garlic. Cook until the carrots are just starting to soften, make sure to stir every now and again so they cook evenly, then add the mushrooms and cook for another minute or so, until the mushrooms start to soften.
- Add the sage and tarragon and toss to coat.
- Pour in the broth, milk and heavy cream and bring back to a boil.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
- While you are waiting for the soup to come back to a boil, grab a small mixing bowl and combine the flour, baking powder, salt and pepper.
- Add in the egg and milk and gently stir with a fork until the mixture is just starting to come together and is still lumpy.
- Dump out on a floured surface and knead a couple times to bind the dough together.
- Now you can either use this as a drop biscuit dumplings, in which case you go ahead and just drop small balls of the dough into your soup and let it simmer away or you can roll it out to about ¼" and cut into small squares and then drop them into the soup, either way works great.
- Allow the dumplings to cook in the soup until baked through, about 7-8 minutes.
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