Easy Homemade Chicken Soup or Chicken n' Dumplings

Photo**

This chicken soup is so easy, I’m going to list all of the measurments in metric, just so you feel like you’ve done something special.

Ingredients

- 1 Whole Deli-roasted Chicken from the grocery store (day-old is good, if the price is marked down) NOTE 1: Roasted chicken, not fried. NOTE 2: Turns out, counting chickens is the same whether in imperial or metric systems. Go figure.

- 2 Liters Water

- Noodles, pasta or dumplings of your choice, amount by personal preference (I like a lot.) Try angel hair pasta broken into 2 cm pieces.

- (Optional) Mirepoix (chopped onion, celery and carrots)  As much or as little as you want, for both color and flavor. NOTE: Mirepoix (MEER-pwah) is the fancy-schmancy French cuisine name for this basic flavor combo, traditionally, two parts onions, one part carrots, and one part celery.

Preparation

- Drop the chicken in a large pot. (Add mirepoix)

- Cover with water (use more water as necessary).

- Bring to a boil and then simmer one hour, covered.

Kroger's roast chicken.

- Remove chicken and taste the broth, add salt, pepper or spices to taste. NOTE: Usually these deli-roasted birds are so heavily salted and spiced that no further seasoning is needed. If you think it needs more spice, try adding some poultry seasoning.

- Bring the broth to a boil and add your pasta, noodles or dumplings, cook according to their directions.

- While the noodles are cooking, carefully (it’ll be HOT) break apart the chicken and pull the meat into bite-sized chunks. Use two forks if the chicken’s too hot to touch.

- Add the meat back to the broth.

- Serve

Variations

Chicken and dumplings**

Chicken Vegetable Soup
- Add some mixed frozen or canned veggies to the broth with the noodles.
Chicken and Dumplings
- Including mirepoix and/or other vegetables, especially carrots and onions, is common.
- Stir in a little roux (you can always add more) to thicken the finished broth. (Presto! Broth becomes stew.)
- Cut refrigerator biscuits into bite-sized pieces, drop on top of simmering stew.
- Cover and simmer about 20-25 minutes.
- Pull the chicken into chunks, add back to finished stew.

;^)

Roux

A roux (roo) is a basic thickener for soups, stews, gravies and sauces.

A roux-based sauce.**

Ingredients

Equal parts, by weight (you can estimate)

- Flour

- Fat (butter, margarine, vegetable oil, animal fat, e.g., bacon grease or lard)

Preparation

- Heat the fat over medium-low until it is a liquid. If you’re using butter, cook it slowly until the bubbling stops.

- Stir in the flour, blending until smooth.

- Continue stirring over medium heat until the raw flour taste is gone, usually 3-5 minutes.

- The longer you cook a roux the darker it gets, imparting more color and flavor to the intended dish. Sometimes you want a roux to be white, sometimes darker.

- Add to intended sauce, soup, stew, gravy, stirring briskly into the dish to avoid lumps, then bring the whatever to a high simmer until thickening occurs, usually just a minute or two. It’s best to use a whisk and not to add to a very hot item. The more you add, the thicker it gets; best to start with just a little

A sure sign of a profes-

sional cook: the ability to
hold hot objects, bare-

handed, with impunity.

Variations

- Cowboy roux (also called a white wash) Blend equal parts flour and water, add as above. Since the flour is raw going into the final dish, it must be cooked longer than when adding a standard roux, usually at least five minutes. Taste test to be sure.

- Cornstarch (corn flour), used in lesser amounts when mixed with water, blends easier, doesn’t have a raw flour taste to worry about, and can impart a bit of shine to the finished product.

;^)