Soupletter: Chicken and Dumplings
I guess it's chicken month
Vegans and vegetarians, I haven’t forgotten you. Soups have been chicken heavy the past few editions, but know that I know I owe you some delicious soups. But not this week: this week’s soup is Chicken and Dumplings. My guide was three trusted sources: New York Times Cooking Chicken and Dumplings, Matty Matheson’s Chicken and Dumplings (what can I say, I binged his YouTube channel recently), and Smitten Kitchen’s Chicken and Dumplings. I used the dumpling measurements and “parsley salad” idea from Matheson, added frozen peas like Smitten Kitchen, and made my own broth á la NYT. Here I would like to shout out Foster Sundry for having the only chickens I want to eat anymore!
My tips: I highly recommend making the broth the night before! Even if I am not making a recipe where I use the fat separately like this one, I always try to save the and freeze the chicken fat because I like to use it to make matzo balls. Keeping the fresh herbs and lemon out of the soup until the individual bowl keeps it brighter AND better for leftovers. This was great! This is the full monty chicken and dumplings— you could also make it with a rotisserie chicken and store-bought broth and it would make it much faster and still very delicious. Endlessly adaptable according to your preferred way of making broth/chicken soup in general or your preferred type of dumpling. Leave out the roux and make matzo balls and it’s matzo ball soup! Whatever you do though, I suggest you do the herbs separately. As always, some terrible pictures at the end!!
Soup
1 chicken cut up in pieces
2 tablespoons oil
1 large yellow onion, chunked
4 stalks celery, chunked
6 medium carrots (about 1 1/2 pounds), half don’t need to be nice but half should be peeled and sliced 1/4-inch thick
3 large leeks, 1 chunked and 2 white and light green parts thinly sliced
frozen peas
2 bay leaves
4 sprigs thyme
¼ cup all-purpose flour
Dumplings
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup green onion thinly sliced
3 tbsp melted butter
3 tbsp sour cream
1/2 cup buttermilk
Parsley Salad Garnish
1/2 cup roughly chopped parsley
1/2 cup roughly chopped dill
Juice of half lemon + zest of the whole lemon
2 tbsp olive oil
Brown the chicken pieces in some oil, then remove to a plate. Sweat onion, celery, half the carrots, and 1 leek in the chicken fat for a few minutes, then add 2 bay leaves, thyme and some peppercorns, add the chicken back in and cover it all with water and simmer for 30-40 minutes. Take out the chicken meat pieces and leave the back and wings in, and continue to simmer if you wish. Strain into a bowl, and refrigerate overnight. This makes the fat rise up to the top and solidify. Get a good night’s sleep. Scrape off the solid fat into a small container with a slotted spoon. (The fat gets used later for the roux and optionally the dumplings, if you have enough.)
Chop up the remaining carrot and 2 leeks nicely, pick off the chicken meat from the bones, mix up the parsley salad ingredients. Put 3 tablespoons of the reserved chicken fat into a pot, then add 1/4 cup flour and whisk. Whisk in a cup of stock, then add the rest and let it up come up to a simmer (make sure the roux gets incorporated and there are no lumps). Add the carrot and leek, simmer for 10 min to soften.
Mix up the dumpling dough. Add the shredded chicken to pot, then the dumplings, then cover and cook. 20 min?? You can cut a dumpling in half to check, they’ll get puffy and big.
Add the frozen peas!
Eat a bowl of soup, topped with the herb salad.
