Easy Chicken Dumpling Soup

I know that we are all in the Christmas spirit and chicken dumpling soup sounds strangely out of place with all that holiday cheer, however, I have had a sick husband the past couple of days so I quickly (as quickly as you can make chicken soup) stirred up a pot for myself and the Grinch. Not to mention that I don’t need much of an excuse to make this soup, it’s one of our favorites.


Soup Ingredients:

1 whole chicken

2lbs carrots - chopped

3 large celery stalks -chopped

1 onion, diced

Chicken stock

Seasoning

To start out, I thawed a 4lb chicken in cold water in the sink. After removing the innards (please don’t forget to do this! If my sister Olivia is reading this, this advice is for you) I placed the chicken into a stock pot 2/3 full of boiling water. I added a TBSP of Herbs de Provence to the pot and boiled the chicken for 30 minutes.


When the chicken had cooked, I removed it from the pot with tongs and placed it on a platter. I added the carrots, onions, and celery. Next I added 3 TBSP chicken stock and a healthy dose of garlic salt.

I proceeded to boil the veggies in the stock while picking the chicken clean. After I had added all of the chicken to the pot, I boiled the soup until the carrots had begun to soften. Nobody likes mushy carrots, so I try to catch them before they get to that point. When the soup is theoretically done, you will want to check the seasoning. You may need to add more garlic salt or chicken stock to taste.

Into all this yummy goodness, we must add dumplings. No chicken soup is complete without them. My husband is totally the dumpling maker in our family, but as I mentioned, he was sick so it was up to me. I persuaded him to give up the recipe and I must say, I think I got it right the first time. Ten points for me.

Dumpling Ingredients:

1 egg

1 cup all purpose flour

¼ cup cold water



First I added the flour to the egg and stirred it together with a fork (apparently using a fork is important because I started out with a whisk and got told). Then add the water and mix it all together. When it is the consistency of oatmeal, maybe a little thicker, drop it by the forkful into the pot of boiling soup (soup should be brought to a rolling boil prior to dropping in dumplings). Add a lid to the pot and let them cook for 10 minutes or so. I will confess that I had to double the batch of dumplings…there are just never enough to go around!

So, I am off now to enjoy this wonderful soup du jour, alone, on my couch, while my husband is quarantined. How about you guys? Made any delicious soups lately? Battling any gross bugs? Any good ideas for disinfecting? Let me know, I’d love to hear from you!