Chicken and Dumpling Soup

Despite the warm weather this weekend, I wanted to make chicken soup. Looking through my Ad Hoc at Home cookbook by Thomas Keller, I stumbled upon a great recipe for Chicken and Dumpling soup. As with every Keller recipe, it's very labor intensive, and takes hours to prep and cook. And of course, a lot of straining.

The soup came out great. I had some friends over to have a mini birthday celebration, very Ad Hoc style. Everyone loved the soup, even my brother Alex tried it. So it's a great soup to make during the cold winter months, very hearty and delicious!

Chicken and Dumpling Soup

1 qt. chicken stock

2 cups water

5 chicken thighs

3 carrot sticks, roughly diced

3 celery stalks, roughly diced

4 scallions, roughly diced

1 Tbsp butter

1/3 -1/2 cup amber roux

1 carrot, sliced

1 celery stalk, sliced

1/2 cup water

4 tbsp butter

1 tsp salt

2/3 cup all purpose flour

1 tsp Dijon Mustard

2 large egg

1/2 tablespoon finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

Directions

1. Melt 1 Tbsp of butter in a large stock pot. Add carrot, celery and scallions. Put chicken thighs skin side down in pot. Cook for 30 minutes.
2. Add stock and water, simmer for 35 minutes.
3. Take chicken out, shred, set aside.
4. Strain veggies out of soup base, set aside.
5. To make dumplings, melt butter and water together in a medium saucepan. Add flour, stir vigorously and dump into a stand mixer.
6. Add mustard and parsley, beat to release some heat. Add one egg at a time to combine.
7. Using a ice cream scoop, make about 2-3 Tbsp dumplings into a pot of simmering salted water. Cook for around 7-9 minutes, then set aside.
8. Add Roux to soup base until desired thickness, add shredded chicken, carrots and celery to it. Finally add dumplings and parsley, let flavors meld for 10-15 minutes. Enjoy!