This
is one of my go to meals. Colorado's weather in March bounces back
and forth, one day 70 degrees out and the next day, snowing with the
high of 20. Very hard to plan meals with this going on and I swear my
teenager has a tape worm because he's always hungry and lately have
not been making enough to fill his tummy. This is one of those meals
that will leave the hungriest guy completely full.
Soup:
3
lbs of chicken thighs ( seems much but remember, you have bones)
4
cloves of garlic, just smashed enough to smell them
1
medium yellow or sweet onion
3
ribs of celery
4
carrots
1
tbsp of onion powder
1
tbsp. Garlic powder
1
tbsp. Salt
1
tsp. Dried basil
5
tbsp. Chicken bouillon, if
using the cubes, only 3 of them, but I use better than bouillon's
brand.
Dumplings:
1
½ cup cake flour/ can us all purpose, but the cake flour makes the dumplings more "airy"
1
½ tsp. Baking powder
½
tsp salt
2
tbsp of fresh herbs of your choice ( I like chives)
5
tbsp unsalted butter
¾
tsp sugar
2/3
cup milk
Instructions:
In
a dutch oven boil water and place chicken in the boiling water for an
hour to 2 hours, depending the thickness of the chicken. Trust me,
boiling the chicken will give you the starter broth , and the most
moist chicken you will ever taste.
While
that is boiling, smash your garlic, dice the onion, slice the carrots
and celery into bite size pieces.
Once
the chicken is fully cooked, set aside until cool enough to handle
and strain the “chicken water” with a fine mesh strainer and save
the water, and put back into the pot. Bring back to a boil. You can
use 2 forks to tear the chicken apart but I use my hands. Throw away
chicken bones and skin. While destroying your chicken, place
remaining ingredients for the soup into the dutch oven, return
chicken meat into the same pot and cover. Boil until veggies are firm
to add the dumplings.
Dumplings:
Sift
all dry ingredients, finely chop your choice of herb/s, add the flour
mixture. Melt butter and add to milk and mix with the dry. Mixture
will thick like paste. I use a cookie scoop to add the dumplings to
the soup, or a soup spoon will work fine. Don't make them too big or they will not steam correctly.
Bring
the soup to a rolling boil, quickly add the wet dumplings to the soup
and cover with lid. Takes 10-15 minutes for the dumplings to steam in
the soup. DO NOT lift the lid while cooking, we want the dumplings to
steam not boil, boiling them will make them dense and mushy instead
airy.
The
flour from dumplings should thicken the soup but for some reason it
doesn't or you want it thicker, follow the directions for making
gravy with corn starch and add until desired thickness.
Enjoy,
and if any is left... wait for the soup to cool and refrigerate.
Seems even better the second day but we never have leftovers.
