Day 21: Homemade Chicken Dumpling Soup

Here is a recipe my mom taught me how to make. It is a favorite in my family and was perfect for a fall night! I found some chicken leg quarters for really cheap the other day and I just froze them until I needed them. I don’t care for chicken on the bone so I planned to use them for soup.

First step is to make some chicken stock from the leg quarters, this is so easy if you have never done this don’t be scared. Just put your chicken in a pot and cover with water and bring to a boil. Continue to boil the chicken for several hours, just make certain there is plenty of water.  The end result is a yellowish liquid, this is stock and will be the base of your soup.

Below is the chicken boiling.

After the chicken has boiled for several hours and you have a thick, yellow stock you separate your meat from the stock. You do this by simply straining it.

Make sure you put a pan under your strainer so you don’t pour your stock you just made down the sink.

Below is a picture of the meat and bones after straining.

Now the amount of stock you have will be much less than the amount of soup you actually want to make. All you do is add as much water to the stock as the amount of soup you want. I added about ten cups of water to my stock. Next add bouillon to your stock and water, use as much as the directions say, I used 1 cube for each cup. Bring back to a boil.

Below is a picture of my stock and added water.

While this is coming back to a boil chop up your veggies. I used a half of a large onion, if you love onion add more, and about 3-4 stalks of celery.

These two ingredients are a very important part of your soup, they add a lot of flavor.

Add the veggies and desired amount of pepper to boiling water on stove.

Do not add salt at this time, the bouillon will add a lot of salt and you don’t want to over salt it.

After it comes to a boil, cover and turn to low and let simmer for a while. I let my simmer for an hour or so until it was closer to dinner time and I was ready to make the dumplings, this also allows the veggies to cook and the flavors combine.

Now about a half hour before diner turn the heat up to high and bring soup to a boil and begin to mix up the dumplings. This is a recipe my family has been using for forever. They are Germaine Egg Dumpling and just amazing! My mom usually has to quadruple the batch for our family. Also at this time I cut up some carrots to throw into the soup too, I don’t like soggy carrots so I wait until the end to do this. You can throw these in while you are mixing up the dumplings.

Combine in a bowl:

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup water

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

After your soup has come to a full rolling boil (it is important for the dumplings to cook and not stick to the bottom),

you drop your dumpling mixture by teaspoon full into the boiling water.

Continue to drop them into the boiling water until all have been made.

And here is you finished product! It is a long process but I promise it is worth every minute of it!

Please share with me you thoughts on this recipe! I love to hear from you!

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