Serves 8

 

Ingredients

  • 2 1/2 lb chicken pieces (wings don’t work well)
  • 4 c chicken broth
  • 1/4 t pepper
  • 1 t dried basil
  • 1/2 t dried thyme
  • a few small new potatoes cut to your liking (maybe 4-5 depending on size)
  • 3 carrots, sliced
  • 2 celery ribs, sliced
  • 1 medium onion (diced or cut small)
  • Optional: couple of squirts of lemon juice, added just before addition of dumplings

Note: the recipe is very flexible, and you can vary the vegetables to your taste. Add pease of 1/2 cup small pieces of broccoli, for example (If you do add broccoli, to preserve the colour, add it just before you drop in the dumplings).

Dumplings

  • 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 3 tablespoons butter or margarine
  • ¾ cup milk
  • ¼ cup minced fresh parsley

 

Directions

  1. Put chicken pieces in broth in a large pot. Cook until tender, and until juices run clear – maybe 25 min. Cool; skim fat off broth. (Easy to put it in the fridge for a while and then the fat just lifts off). Remove chicken from bones.
  2. Cut up the vegetables.
  3. Optional: sauté the onions in a bit of oil, until they are transparent. You could add a clove of garlic, if you like it.
  4. Add vegetables and spices to the cooled skimmed broth.
  5. Simmer all together for 20 minutes, or until vegetables are soft. Note: While the chicken is cooking, check broth for flavour. If it needs a bit of salt, add at this point.
  6. Mix together 2T flour and 1/2 cup milk until smooth. Pour it slowly into the broth to thicken it a bit. Just add enough to make a thin gravy. The dumplings will thicken it more.

To make the dumplings:

  1. Mix flour, salt, baking powder in a bowl
  2. Cut in butter untll mixture looks like coarse crumbs
  3. Pour in milk and parsley.
  4. Mix together
  5. Drop by tablespoons on hot chicken mixture. Let cook for 10 minutes.
  6. Put a lid on, and let simmer for another 10 -15  minutes.