June 23, 2020
Whenever I roast a whole chicken, I like to find creative ways to use up any remaining chicken. One of my favorite ways to use up leftover chicken is to toss the meat into curried chicken salad or spicy chicken salad and save the rest for making chicken stock. I like to remove as much of the chicken meat off of the chicken first before tossing the remaining bones into a slow cooker. With just a few aromatics tossed into the slow cooker along with the chicken bones, I know I will have the most marvelous concentrated chicken stock the next day. I have been making chicken stock this way for years as a way to reduce waste. The concentrated chicken stock becomes the perfect foundation for chicken soup. Most of the time, I end up just enjoying the stock as is with a few additional vegetables tossed in for a simple soup. Other times, I toss in some cooked egg noodles to make chicken noodle soup or add in some rolled dough balls to make the tastiest chicken and dumplings. Last week, I had roasted a whole chicken to use for layering into homemade flour wraps. I saved the remaining chicken bones and roasted vegetables to make chicken stock in a slow cooker overnight. The next day, I used the chicken stock to make chicken soup with parsley dumplings. Typically, when I make dumplings for my chicken soup, I just combine some all-purpose flour, baking powder, kosher salt, sugar, water, and herbs to form dumplings. This time around, I added a few ladles of chicken stock directly into the dry mixture and ended up with the most flavorful fluffy dumplings. Adding chicken stock directly into the dumplings was such a game changer. I couldn’t believe I didn’t think of this earlier. Chicken soup with parsley dumplings is one of my favorite dishes to make and serve on cold, rainy days. Sipping on chicken noodle soup always seems to transport me back to all of the moments in my childhood where my mom would make hearty chicken soup as a way to nourish my health. My mom always made the best chicken soup. Her version uses a whole chicken, a few aromatics, and features a clay pot within a larger pot. I remember always watching her rinse the chicken, salt the chicken, and tuck the chicken neatly into a clay pot. She would then add a handful of aromatics, close the lid on the clay pot, and transfer the clay pot into a large pot fitted with a circular rack and tons of water. With a few clicks of the trusty old stove in our home in Brooklyn, the gas fire was lit. The large pot was left to cook undisturbed for hours upon hours. I never knew exactly when the chicken soup would be done cooking. I just followed my mom’s intuition as her internal timer told her when it was time to remove the soup from the pot. As I got older, I strayed away from my mom’s version of chicken soup. I began to taste other versions of chicken soup throughout my college years and into adulthood. Each family seems to have its own version of chicken soup. No matter how many chicken soups I’ve tasted over the years, I keep coming back to a simple soup featuring a combination of onion, carrots, and celery. These vegetables formed the foundation of my chicken soup with parsley dumplings. The hecticness of daily life also transformed my way of cooking chicken soup. When I discovered the magic of a slow cooker, a tool my mom never used, I found the ease of the tool to be the perfect addition to daily cooking. I leave the slow cooker on the lowest heat setting overnight, and I always end up with a truly flavorful chicken stock the next day. The chicken stock transforms easily into my nourishing chicken soup with parsley dumplings.
For the chicken stock:
· prepare the ingredients in my recipe for garlic lemon roast chicken over vegetables
· 4-6 cups water
· 1 teaspoon kosher salt
· 2 stalks of celery, chopped into large pieces
· 2 sprigs of fresh thyme
· 1 bay leaf
· 2 sprigs of parsley
For the chicken soup:
· 1 stalk of celery, diced
· 1 carrot, peeled and diced
· 2 cups water
· ½ teaspoon kosher salt
· ¼ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
For the parsley dumplings:
· 1½ cups all-purpose flour, plus additional for kneading the dough
· ½ teaspoon baking powder
· ½ teaspoon kosher salt
· ½ teaspoon granulated sugar
· 3 sprigs of fresh parsley, stems removed and roughly chopped
· ¼ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
· ¼-½ cup chicken stock
· ½ cup frozen green peas
· 2 sprigs fresh parsley, stems removed and roughly chopped
Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 425°F. Prepare the ingredients in my recipe for garlic lemon roast chicken over vegetables. Leave the whole chicken intact when roasting. Truss the legs of the chicken prior to roasting. Roast the chicken for one hour and thirty minutes. Once the chicken is done roasting, enjoy as much of the chicken as you would like and reserve the rest for making chicken stock.
2) Transfer the remaining chicken, bones, and vegetables into a large slow cooker. Remove the lemon slices. Fill the slow cooker with water, salt, celery, fresh thyme, bay leaf, and parsley. Close the lid of the slow cooker. Set the slow cooker to the low heat setting. Leave the slow cooker undisturbed for at least eight hours or overnight.
3) After eight hours or the next day, transfer the chicken stock into a Dutch oven pot set on medium heat on a stove. Set aside ½ cup of chicken stock to use for making parsley dumplings. Add the diced celery, carrot, 2 cups of water, ½ teaspoon of kosher salt, and ¼ teaspoon of black pepper into the Dutch oven pot. Let the soup cook for about ten minutes.
4) While the soup is cooking, prepare the parsley dumplings by combining the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, parsley, and black pepper in a bowl. Slowly ladle in the chicken stock and knead the ingredients to form a dough. If the dough is too dry, add more stock. If the dough is too wet, add more flour. Continue kneading until a pliable dough is formed. You may not need to use all of the chicken stock. Transfer any remaining stock into the simmering Dutch oven pot. Divide the dough into 15-20 pieces. Roll the pieces of dough into balls. Drop the dough balls into the simmering chicken soup. Let the dumplings cook for about 10-15 minutes. Add the frozen green peas during the last 2 minutes of cooking. Turn off the heat.
5) Top the chicken soup and parsley dumplings with the roughly chopped parsley and serve while hot.
Takeaways: The dumplings can be made with other fresh herbs you have on hand. I’ve made variations of dumplings without any herbs and with thinly sliced scallions folded into the dough. Feel free to swap in other herbs or omit herbs depending on your preference. The parsley dumplings taste best when fresh. I like to make just enough parsley dumplings to enjoy on the day I make the soup.