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
- 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.
- Cut up the vegetables.
- Optional: sauté the onions in a bit of oil, until they are transparent. You could add a clove of garlic, if you like it.
- Add vegetables and spices to the cooled skimmed broth.
- 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.
- 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:
- Mix flour, salt, baking powder in a bowl
- Cut in butter untll mixture looks like coarse crumbs
- Pour in milk and parsley.
- Mix together
- Drop by tablespoons on hot chicken mixture. Let cook for 10 minutes.
- Put a lid on, and let simmer for another 10 -15 minutes.