Chicken Dumpling Soup

I made chicken dumpling soup today because I have been craving it ever since I was sick, but couldn't settle for anyone else's.

I don't really have a recipe for how I make mine because soup is so forgiving, but the basic steps are:

• Saute roughly chopped onion and celery (with some of the leaves) until soft. Carrots will be in there too but they probably won't get soft yet.
• Add herbs (parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, bay leaf), salt, and finely ground pepper, and saute a couple more minutes
• Add broth (usually I use water + refrigerated base; Better Than Bouillon is my favorite) 
• Bring to a simmer and cook ~15 minutes, until carrots are soft. Cut raw chicken thighs into bite size pieces (if they're frozen, I thaw them a little bit in the soup as it simmers) and prepare dumplings in the meantime.
• Turn up heat to medium. Add chicken and then dumplings. When chicken is cooked through and dumplings float, it's done.

Lots of restaurant dumpling soups I've had make the dumplings so big they take several bites to eat (messy since you have to throw the half eaten dumplings back in, and they might fall off your spoon and splash), and they're often not done in the middle, or they are and the rest of the stuff in the soup is overcooked). Or on the other end, they disintegrate and thicken the soup in a gross way. And often they have no flavor, just gummy floury ick. I know that's a little bit what dumplings are, but they should still taste good.

But I cry no more! I have found what I love. My go-to soup dumpling recipe is from Natasha's Kitchen. They're small enough to fit on your spoon with other elements of the soup, they are a bit chewy, they cook at the same time as the chicken, and they have a nice flavor (thanks to eggs and butter). I often use plain Greek yogurt instead of the sour cream because it's what I have on hand, and olive oil instead of butter when I'm too lazy to melt butter. I even halve the recipe when I'm making a smaller batch of soup and it works great.

Tonight I used white whole wheat flour in the dumplings instead of all purpose flour, though...and I wish I hadn't. They were still edible but had a grainy texture. Live and learn.

RECIPE: Chicken and Dumpling Soup