Chicken and dumpling soup

This is quite simply comfort food at its best. It’s a cinch to throw together, and perfect for sick days. I’ve adapted it from this recipe. Someday I may have a picture to show you, but the soup tends to disappear on me before it can be captured. Yes, it’s that good.

Ingredients

• 5 to 5.5 cups chicken broth
• 5 to 5.5 coups water
• 2-3 chicken breasts
• 1.5 Tablespoons olive oil
• 2 stalks celery chopped
• 2 large carrots chopped
• 1 medium sized yellow onion chopped
• salt to taste
• about 2 teaspoons dried thyme (to taste)
• 1/4-1/2 teaspoon black pepper (to taste)
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 cup cold water
• 2 and 1/4 cup flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 4.5 Tablespoons butter
• approx. 1 cup milk
• dried parsley

Broth:

In a large pot, bring water and broth to a boil. Add chicken breasts and cook for about 15 minutes (until cooked through). If you live in China, where chicken breasts are abnormally and unnaturally large, 2 will be plenty. After cooking, remove chicken from pot and shred it using two forks.

Veggies:

While the chicken cooks, chop up the carrots, onion, and celery. Add to a frying pan with the olive oil and saute for about 7-10 minutes until the veggies are tender. After removing the chicken from the broth, add the veggies to the pot. Stir in the thyme, salt and pepper. In a small bowl, whisk together the 1/2 cup flour with 1 cup of cold water. With the soup simmering, slowly pour the mixture into the soup, whisking while you’re pouring. At this point, taste the soup to determine if it needs anymore salt/pepper/thyme, and then add the shredded chicken.

Dumplings:

Mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cut in the butter. Mix in dried parsley. I don’t measure things like that and I’m notoriously horrible at guessing measurements. However, my best advice is don’t skimp on it. Slowly mix in the milk until the dough sticks together, but is not overly sticky. Drop the dumpling dough by tablespoon on top of the soup in a single layer, and then put a lid on the pot. DO NOT PEEK for the next 20 minutes. Apparently this is an imperative step. While the dumplings cook and you revel in the tantalizing smell of the soup, distract yourself by cleaning up the {if you’re like me, quite large} mess you’ve made.

Lastly, serve the steaming hot soup to those you love!