Creamy Chicken Soup with Dumplings

Alright, I am going to try and get more serious about posting, but as an apology I am about to share my recipe for Chicken and Dumpling soup.

This recipe has been developing for about 4 years and for the first time I stopped and payed attention to what I was actually doing so that I could share it in it's now nearly perfected form.   I first got this recipe from a friend of one of my ex-boyfriends and the original recipe was really basic and used cans of Cream of Chicken soup and Bisquick dumplings.  Overtime I eliminated both Bisquick and cans of soup.

*Warning*   This soup is a little labor intensive and takes time, but the added flavor is sooooooo worth it.

Ingredients

1 whole chicken cut into pieces  The chicken has to have bones and skin people, without it the soup will be boring.  You don't have to cut the chicken at home like me but you do want all the pieces from a whole bird.

1 tbsp olive oil

2 cups chopped onion (1 large)

2 cups chopped celery,  use the heart of a bunch, leaves and all.  This will really impact the flavor of your soup (the heart is the inside bits)

2 cups chopped carrot (3 large)

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup flour

4 cups low sodium broth  (this way you can control saltiness) 

2 cups  water

1-2 cup  corn  canned or frozen works

salt and pepper

Thats the ingredients for the soup itself and now the dumplings.

1 1/3 cup  flour

2/3 cup  cornmeal

1 tbsp sage

2 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp  salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 cup  buttermilk

2 tbsp olive oil

Here is how this all come together.  

1. Heat a large pot to medium high, I use a large dutch oven, about 6 quarts.  While the pan is heating, sprinkle the chicken on both sides with a little salt and pepper.  Once the pan is hot add the olive oil and let it get hot, you will know it's ready when it shimmers, or ripples.  Place pieces of chicken in to let it brown, flip it over so it browns on all sides.  Don't put all the chicken in at once or the pans temperature will drop to much.  The chicken will not get cooked through. This is just to help add flavor.  When the chicken is all browned place it in a bowl and set it off to the side.

2. The pan should have plenty of oil/fat (not to mention brown bits) left over from the chicken.  Add the chopped vegetables to pot.  As the vegetables cook, they will release moisture helping to clean all the brown bits from the bottom of the pan, this is very good.  Just keep stirring the vegetables and scraping the bottom of the pan until the veggies are softened.

3.  Turn the burner down to medium and take your veggies and scrape them to the sides of the pot so you have a clear space in the middle.  Put the butter in the middle and let it melt.  As soon as it is melted, add in the flour.  Stir all the butter, flour, and veggies together.  You are going to want to wait till the flour starts to look golden, this keeps the soup from having a raw flour taste.  Some of the flour will stick to the bottom of the pan, this ok, we'll take care of it in step 4.

4. Once the flour is ready, start slowly adding your broth, probably 1/2 cup at a time.  As you add the broth stir/scrape the bottom of the pan.  This is going to help get all that flour off the bottom and make sure that it doesn't get all clumpy in your soup.  You will notice tat the broth will start to bubble and thicken pretty quickly, just keep slowly adding in the broth.  After you have added all the broth, add the water.  Bring all the liquid up to a boil.

5. As your liquid is getting to boiling take the chicken from the bowl and peel off the extra skin and fat.  When the pot is boiling add the chicken pieces in, lid the pot, and turn the temp to medium low so that the soup can simmer and the chicken can finish cooking.  By adding the chicken, bones and all, to cook, you are adding tons of extra chicken-y flavor.

6. When your chicken is cooked, pull it from the pot and put it back in the bowl from earlier to cool.  This is now the time when you add the corn and put the lid back on.  After the chicken cools, tear off the meat, break it into smaller pieces, and throw it into the pot.  Taste the soup now too, it is the perfect time to add salt or pepper if needed.  Dispose off any bones or unwanted chicken bits.

7.  Now we will assemble dumplings while letting the soup simmer.  Mix all the dry ingredients together in a medium bowl then add your liquids.  Stir till just mixed.  Start dropping big spoonfuls of dough into the soup.  You can decide how many dumplings you want or how big.  After all the dumplings are in put the lid on pot and let them simmer in the soup for about 4 minutes then remove the lid and flip them over to cook for another 4 minutes or so.  Those times could change if you make tiny or humongous dumplings.  

That is pretty much it.  Now, you might have noticed that I didn't really give times.  I did this because I pretty much play it by ear when I make this soup.  If it simmers longer, great. If not, that's perfectly ok.  The important part is layering all the flavors and using the chicken to its fullest ability because that is what makes the soup sooooo yummy.