Prep: 20 minutes Cook: 1 hour and change

This recipe comes from Chrissy Teigen’s Cravings Hungry for More cookbook. It looked amazing and I didn’t think I had eaten chicken and dumplings before. Once I tasted it though, the nostalgia of something long forgotten hit me and made this succulent dish even better. I am so happy I made this. Her version was for six folks. I did my best to make less but ended up with enough for still probably two or three.

Ingredients

Soup

• 1 chicken breast

• Salt and Pepper to taste

• 3 tbls vegetable oil

• 2-3 cups water

• 1 bayleaf

• 1/2 tsp thyme (not reduced but I like flavor)

• 1/2 tsp rosemary (not reduced but I like flavor)

• 1 tbls butter

• 1/4 onion diced

• 1 carrot chopped

• 1/2 celery stalk chopped (I added a lot less because I dislike celery)

• 2 tbls flour

• 1 potato

• 2 tbls heavy cream

Dumpling

• 1 egg

• 1 tbls milk

• 1 tbls melted butter

• 1/2 cup flour

• 1 tsp baking powder

• Pinch of salt

Prep

Soup

1. Rub the chicken with the salt and pepper.

2. While she wants you to use a dutch oven, I didn’t know what this was and after googling found I also don’t have one. You can just use a pot that’s deep enough for the ingredients you use. Add the veggie oil and heat to medium heat

3. Add the chicken and cook at least 4 minutes on each side

4. Add two to three cups of water, the bay leaf, thyme, rosemary and salt

5. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer and cook until the chicken is falling apart easily. Chrissy says for an hour but that’s also with four pounds of chicken, I had less than one.

6. Grab a strainer and put it over a bowl. Remove the bayleaf and pour all of it through the strainer. Shred the chicken

7. Add two tbls of veggie oil and the butter to the pot

8. Add the vegetables except the potato and cooking until the carrot softens which could be about six minutes

9. Add the flour and stir constantly while it darkens which should be around five minutes

10. Add the broth, chicken, and potato to the pot again

11. Bring to a simmer and stir sometimes while letting it thicken

12. This will take maybe 20 minutes

Dumpling

1. In a small bowl whisk the egg, milk, and melted butter

2. In a larger bowl add the flour, baking powder and salt

3. Pour the small bowl into the larger and use a fork to mix it together so that it gets so a good crumbly mixture that isn’t too compacted together

4. Ball it into the dumplings and add to the pot of soup for at least fifteen minutes

5. Add the cream and stir through before removing from heat and serving

Afterthoughts

This was so great. It brought feelings of home and my grandmother to the forefront and was so easy to make. Soups are always easy and this was no exception and the dumplings too were so simple and easy to put together. No single ingredient was too much for it and balanced so well. This was super filling and was not too heavy. I was very full with a single bowl and this is so easy to make a big amount to feed a full family.