Chicken and Dumplings

Ingredients

Soup

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/4 pound skinless, boneless chicken, cubed
  • Breast or thighs is fine, your choice
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 1/3 cup flour
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1 pinch cayenne pepper
• 6 cups chicken broth
• 2 celery, diced
• 1 large carrot, diced
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves (Optional)
• 2 tablespoons sliced green onions

Dumplings

• 1/2 cup farmer’s cheese ¹
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/4 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste
• 1 pinch freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup self-rising flour
• 1 pinch cayenne pepper

Directions

Soup

1. Melt butter in a high saucepan with a lid over medium-high heat.
2. Add chicken and cook, stirring, until lightly browned, about 5 minutes.
3. Add onion and cook, stirring, until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes.
4. Season with salt, pepper, and cayenne.
5. Mix in flour and stir until flour is well mixed in, making a roux, 2 to 3 minutes. You can add more flour if you want a thicker stew.
6. Pour in chicken broth and scrape up browned bits from the bottom.
7. Add carrots and celery and bring gravy to a simmer.
8. Lower heat to medium-low and maintain a steady simmer.
9. Add thyme leaves and simmer until gravy is slightly reduced and has thickened, about 45 minutes.

Dumplings

1. Combine cheese, egg, rosemary, salt, and pepper in a bowl.
2. Mix with a spoon until smooth.
3. Add self-rising flour and mix until a very stiff batter forms.
4. Raise heat to medium and bring gravy back to a steady simmer. Add green onions.
5. Remove 1 heaping tablespoon dumpling batter at a time.
6. Shape with the use of a second tablespoon into oval dumplings and carefully drop into the simmering liquid. You should get a total of 6 dumplings out of this recipe.
7. Dust with cayenne pepper, cover, and reduce heat to medium-low.
8. Simmer and steam dumplings until they are puffed up and cooked through without stirring or peaking, about 15 minutes.
9. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt if necessary.

A Note on dumpling cheese

If you end up with a cheese that is not very soft, that is fine. It can still be used.

1. Cube the cheese and add a little cream to help get a better consistency for mixing with flour.
2. Using a food processor or an immersion blender, process the cubed cheese, cream, and spices until fairly smooth.
3. A little chunky is fine, it doesn’t need to be perfect, but it should be the consistency of a loose batter prior to mixing with the flour.

Footnotes