We just didn’t eat chicken and dumplings when I was growing up. I don’t even think my grandma made them, but when I married my husband, it was something he craved and always asked for. My step mother in law taught me how to make hers, and I adapted it over time trying to make a less time consuming recipe. So, for quite some time, I used Bisquick and cream of chicken soup. It was good, but I wasn’t proud of them because they weren’t from scratch and full of so much sodium.
This recipe is from scratch and it doesn’t take that long because the dough is a drop dumpling. In other words, you will use a spoon or small melon scoop to scoop and drop your dumplings. It makes for a fluffy dumpling and it’s just the way my husband likes his dumplings. So, y’all, no rolling out biscuits or dough or even rolling dumplings in your hands. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do. I could eat the whole pot myself. They are absolutely perfect on a cool fall day or a cold winter day or heck, just crank the a/c down and pretend it’s cold outside and make them!
What you’ll need:
- 2 Tablespoons of olive oil
- 2 medium carrots
- 1 medium yellow onion
- 1 teaspoon of minced garlic
- 8 Tablespoons of butter
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 7 cups of chicken stock
- 2 lbs of cooked chicken shredded
- 2 tsp thyme
- 2 tsp sage
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- Salt to taste (I don’t add salt because I use regular chicken stock)
Dumplings
- 4 Tablespoons butter
- 3 cups flour
- 5 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- 1 1/3 cup milk
Instructions
Dumplings (I do these first so the batter has time to rest while I prepare the soup)
1) melt 4 tablespoons of butter for the dumplings.
2) Place the 3 cups flour, baking powder, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Whisk to combine. Pour in the melted butter and work with a fork. It will make small clumps. Don’t worry about getting it smooth. Leave it bumpy.
3) make a small well in the middle of your flour mixture and pour in the milk. Take your fork and slowly add flour to the milk until it is combined. Take a spatula and scrape the sides of the bowl and mix until there is no more dry flour left. Mixture should be wet and have lumps. You shouldn’t be able to take it in your hands and form balls or anything. It’s meant to be a sloppy mess at this point. (Just wait). Let the mixture rest while you make your soup.
Soup:
1) over medium heat in a dutch oven or large pot, heat up the oil. Add the carrot and sauté until carrot starts to become soft. Add onions. Sauté until they are transparent. Add garlic. Stir for a few minutes until garlic is fragrant. Remove vegetables from the pot.
2) lower heat to low. Add 8 tablespoons of butter and let it melt. Add the 1/2 cup of flour and whisk with the butter. Continue whisking for a few minutes.
3) slowly add in the creamer. Mixture should be a thick paste when you are done adding the heavy cream.
4) Continue whisking and add in the chicken stock.
5) add the shredded chicken, vegetables and seasonings to the soup mixture.
6) turn the heat to medium and bring to a strong simmer.
7) with a melon ball scoop, scoop the dumpling mix and release it into the simmering broth. Continue until you are out of batter. Do NOT stir. Do NOT stir. Do NOT stir.
8) put a lid on your pot and turn the heat to LO/simmer and let the dumplings cook for 14 minutes. At the end of 15 minutes, remove the lid and check your dumpling with a toothpick. If it comes out clean, turn off the heat and let your soup cool before eating. If it needs a bit more time, recover and cook until toothpick comes out clean.