Nerdy confession time! I keep a recipe journal in one of those grade school composition notebooks, where I handwrite every new recipe I make. Super anal, I know, but it helps me keep track of what I’ve tried and how I riffed on each recipe, as well as allowing me to consider what worked and what didn’t, and how I might change things up next time. Sometimes I go the extra nerd-mile and give the recipe a little letter grade in the top right corner. I can’t believe I just admitted that, but there you go.
This chicken dumpling soup gets an A+++++++++, which is quite a feat, because soups don’t usually excite me, and the last time a soup made its way into the recipe journal, I wrote over it with red Sharpie in huge capitals: FAIL. (Split pea, never again.) This was the inspiration, which elevates the same-ol’-same-ol’ trifecta of carrot-celery-onion by trading in leeks and parsnips for the latter two. I sautéed the veggies to crisp-tender in a stock pot while cooking a chicken breast separately, then shredded the chicken and combined it with the veggies, adding fresh parsley, a roux and frozen homemade stock (the silver lining from another recipe FAIL: roast chicken). Brought it all to a simmer, and cooked it for 20 minutes, til veggies were done. Served with fresh parsley and these dumplings (with a few tablespoons of chopped celery leaves, chives and parsley mixed in), which I had cooked separately, out of fear of dumpling disintegration (again, a previous fail). And oh, it was dreamy: rich and thick with veggies, but not heavy, and with those darling, chewy little dumplings in there, each one like a plump cross between a biscuit and a noodle.
Two other bonuses about this soup: (1) Like any soup worth its salt (ha!), this one’s actually better on Day Two. (2) You get to repeatedly say “dumpling,” which is only the cutest word in the English language.
