Homemade Chicken Soup is not only good for you when you are sick;  but, it is pure comfort food.  Especially when you add Butter Dumplings to the recipe …. little floury morsels dripping with buttery goodness.  I will never go back to my traditional pasty dumplings!

We had a pretty busy weekend entertaining but I did find time to get a pot of chicken stock going on Sunday while we sipped wine all afternoon and made a fantastic meal.    I made a batch of beef stock a couple weeks ago but the freezer has been missing chicken so it was definitely time.   I don’t have any particular recipe, I just kind of wing it.  Each time it comes out a little differently but still very good.  If you don’t make stock you really should, it makes all the difference.

Tonight was a very rainy night, a night that was meant to be spent at home.  I decided to make my fall back on Chicken Soup using some of the chicken stock.  I sauteed some carrots, celery, onions and garlic with a little olive oil and then I added it to the chicken stock.  I had saved the meat from the stock making and added it as well.  While I let this simmer for about an hour, I tossed around the idea of adding rice or barley but then I remembered dumplings.  I have a recipe I normally use, while they are good, they are not great.  So tonight I decided to try the Butter Dumpling recipe in the Mark Bittman cookbook, How to Cook Everything.  The difference between the two recipes was that his calls for butter, grated onion and some stock added into the dumpling mixture.  This little morsels of sinful buttery goodness were a great addition to my basic chicken soup.  Flavorful.  Buttery (even left a nice layer of butter in the soup).  Light and slightly eggy.  We have definitely found our new favorite dumpling recipe!

Recipe

Basic Chicken Soup
6 cups of homemade chicken stock
1/2 yellow onion diced
2 carrots diced
4 ribs of celery diced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup of chicken meat saved from making the stock
salt
pepper

Saute the veggies in the olive oil until soft.  Add the chicken stock and the chicken meat.  Reduce heat to a low simmer and let cook for about an hour to blend the flavors.   Season with salt and pepper.

Butter Dumplings
*from the How to Cook Everything cookbook
4 tablespoons butter softened
2 eggs
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley leaves
1/4 cup minced or grated onion
salt
freshly ground pepper

Cream the butter in a bowl with the back of a fork, then beat in the eggs.  Stir in the flour, parsley, onion, salt and pepper blending well.  Add heated stock 1 tablespoon at a time, just until the batter is soft;  do not make it too loose or the dumplings will fall apart.

Drop the batter by the teaspoonful into the simmering broth.  Cook until set and cooked through, about 10 minutes, removing the dumplings as they are done.  Serve immediately in the soup.