Quick Chicken and Dumpling Soup

It's that time of year when sneezing and coughing abound and facial tissue sales spike.  The husband and I had been lucky that we'd avoided any creeping crud (it's been spreading around work like wildfire).  But alas, I finally fell victim this week.  And now that I'm on the upswing, the husband is now getting sniffly.  This called for some chicken soup, and asap.

The best spot to look for this sort of recipe is one of my favorite websites/magazines - Cook's Country.  Their recipes can be a bit putzy sometimes, but because they test them to the extreme, you know they will always turn out fantastic.

Of course, to get the best flavor I should make the stock from scratch and spend all afternoon on the soup.  That doesn't appeal to me when I'm 100% healthy, let alone when I'm feeling under the weather.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that they had a quick chicken and dumpling soup, and it was exactly what I was looking for.

After mixing up the dumpling dough, the husband commented how messy it was going to be to make the dumplings.  Then I had a eureka moment - put the dough in a Ziploc bag, cut the corner off, and squeeze out little dumplings.  I used kitchen shears to cut the dough as it came out, and it worked perfectly.  Far less messy than the alternative and it made for equally-sized dumplings.  One word of warning - make sure to keep the kitchen shears just shy of the edge of the bag to avoid cutting plastic into the soup.  Of course, if you used a real pastry bag with a tip, this wouldn't be a problem at all.

The soup was super simple to make and it turned out wonderfully.  Here's hoping that this chicken soup speeds our recovery!

Quick Chicken and Dumpling Soup
(from Cook's Country)
Makes ~6 servings

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup water
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
Salt & pepper
3 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 onion, chopped fine
2-3 carrots, peeled and sliced thin
1-2 celery ribs, sliced thin
8 cups low-sodium chicken broth
2 bay leaves
1 rotisserie chicken, skin discarded, meat shredded into bite-sized pieces (about 3 cups)

Whisk flour, water, eggs, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp pepper in bowl, set aside.

Melt butter in large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Cook onion, carrots, and celery until lightly browned, about 5 minutes.  Stir in broth and bay leaves and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, covered, until vegetables are tender, 10-15 minutes.

Remove lid of pot.  Stir in chicken and season with salt and pepper; return to simmer.  Scoop dumpling dough into Ziploc bag and trim off corner (roughly 1/4 inch).  Working quickly, squeeze dough out and cut with kitchen shears to create dumplings and drop into soup.

Simmer, until dumplings are set, 1 to 2 minutes.  Remove bay leaves.  Season with salt and pepper.

Enjoy!