How's it going, everyone? It's just in here in the
delish kitchen studios.
Chicken and Dumplings is one of those dishes that is
like kind of just a hug from the inside.
It's these dumplings that are essentially like pillowy
flavor sponges that sit and SOP up all that rich
broth and creamy goodness.
I'm really excited. It's actually such a simple recipe.
You're going to feel like an incredible grandma,
grandpa making it in your kitchen.
Let's do this being a sweet little boy from New
Jersey and not a tough man from the South,
I typically think of this dish as sort of like
the country version of matzo ball soup.
It's essentially just a really hearty chicken soup with big
gluten full like sponges of flavor that sit in there.
But at the end of the day,
all we're doing is creating as flavorful as chicken soup
as possible.
So as we would for matzo ball soup,
and the same for this.
We're going to start with four crucial ingredients.
We're going to have some onion,
celery, carrot and garlic. Then we're going to mince all
of those up.
So first I'm going to mince the onion,
then we're going to chop up a single stalk of
celery.
If you want to make it super fun,
you can split it in half.
Then I'm going to slice up the carrots into little
beautiful,
cute half moons and then mince up all the garlic.
We are going to start our soup base in a
nice heavy bottom pot,
good glug of olive oil.
Then we're going to cook off all of our aromatics,
go in with our onion,
carrots, celery. Cook that down until like just getting golden
on the outside,
nice and translucent, about 7 minutes.
Then we're going to go in with the garlic.
Just cook that off until it's aromatic,
like 30 seconds a minute.
Also, before I forget, we're going to add in a
bit of oregano,
add some herbaceousness to the party.
Now we're going to get this soup really started and
we're going to add in some chicken broth,
Low sodium, always better so you can adjust the seasoning
yourself.
Then we're going to go in with a couple of
springs of thyme,
add a little more dimension of flavor,
and then we're going to add some chicken.
We're going to be adding both breasts and thighs,
which I really love. People typically,
if they're just using chicken parts for soup,
we'll opt for just breasts.
I think that lacks flavor.
I think it'd be kind of kind of becomes like
one note texturally.
So I love that this has both,
and especially because I'm a thigh guy,
I want that in my soup.
We're going to place that in while the broth is
still relatively cold.
Then we're going to bring that whole thing up to
a boil,
reduce that heat to a simmer,
and go for about 10 minutes until the chicken is
fully cooked.
And you can check that with a probe thermometer,
making sure it hits 165 while the chicken simmers away.
We're going to make our dumpling batter,
and it should be made-up of things you already have
in your pantry or fridge right Now into a large
bowl.
We're going to go in with some flour,
baking powder, and some salt.
Whisk that up until it's all combined.
Then we're going to make a little well in the
center of our dry ingredients,
just so the wet ingredients have some place to congregate
and we're going to go in with an egg,
a little bit of melted butter,
buttermilk. Now, there are a couple things in there.
You might not know the reason that they are indeed
in this batter and you might want to learn why.
Let's talk about it. First off,
there is baking powder and a decent amount of it.
The iconic thing of chicken and dumplings is just how
light and airy they are,
and that needs to come from some sort of leavening
agent.
So we're going to be using baking powder,
and typically we need something to activate that baking powder.
It will work kind of generally if you just put
it in something and start cooking it,
but having an acid to activate it really,
really helps. So by using buttermilk,
we're going to be super activating that baking powder.
It's going to cause everything to get like rise,
but in this case kind of expand and get fluffy
and beautiful.
You can kind of think of this sort of like
a savory pancake batter.
Think of the difference between regular pancakes and buttermilk.
Pancakes that buttermilk are just a little bit fluffier and
a little bit tastier.
That's essentially what we're doing here.
Do not over mix this.
Once your dough kind of comes together,
it should sort of feel like a little bit tighter
of a cookie dough.
Stop. Put it away. It's going to feel already like
light,
fluffy, nearly effervescent. It's going to be delicious.
So put this here. Get finished with our soup so
we can cook them off.
Be aware that the thighs are going to cook a
little bit more quickly than the breast,
so go ahead and pull those out earlier.
Once everything's cooked and up to 165,
transfer it to a cutting board.
Let it cool and then go ahead and shred to
your heart's content.
I think chicken and dumplings is typically made with shreds,
but if you must do cubes,
fine, go ahead and do it.
I won't tell you're a southern grandma or me,
Ma probably. Now that it's all shredded,
we're going to add the chicken into our pot.
I love like kind of bigger shreds,
nice bite in the soup.
Then we're going to add some heavy cream.
By some I mean a decent amount.
The cream is what sets this dish apart from being
just like a normal chicken soup with floaters in it,
into something that is like more comforting,
rich, delicious, just going to add another layer of creamy
richness to this dish that I think is totally necessary
because who doesn't want more fat,
more deliciousness? Then we're going to bring that to a
simmer,
and once it's bubbling away,
we're going to add our dumpling dough.
We're going to do the scoop by scoop using a
cookie disher or cookie scoop or ice cream scoop,
whatever you want to call it.
That just makes it even for me.
You want something smaller than you think because these are
going to puff up a good deal.
But if you want to be more rustic and have
different sized dumplings,
use two spoons. Use one spoon,
get them into your pot,
bring it all back up to a simmer.
Then we're going to cover it and cook for 5
minutes until those dumplings are cooked through.
Then we're going to get into some bowls.
We're going to top this with salt and pepper and
of course just a little bit of parsley.
And in this case, parsley is not just for color.
This is adding a fresh herbaceousness that does add depth
that we need.
Otherwise you can kind of feel.
One note, I don't remember the last time I had
chicken and dumplings.
Cheers.
I kind of think of chicken and dumplings as being
like chicken pot pie but in soup form.
And some people might complain that we don't have the
buttery,
flaky crust. But there is something about that
pillowy, soft, flavorful dumpling that cooked in the soup itself
that actually,
like chicken pot pie doesn't hold a candle to in
my opinion.
Also, you saw how easy it was.
I don't have to wait for crust to cool or
whatever.
This came together in like 30 minutes.
It's the sort of thing that you can whip up
whenever you're feeling not super well,
or when you have a family member that just needs
a hug but from the inside.
As I said before, I'm going to go inhale this
and another bowl,
but if you want more comfort food recipes,
stick around here on delish.com.