A nice winter warming soup to enjoy sitting in front of the fire on a cold winter Manx day. And with added dumplings to satisfy you even more – pure comfort food at its best!
What you need
For the fire
Some matches
Kindling sticks
Logs
For the soup
2 skinless chicken breasts or 6 good thighs
1 pint of water
1/4 of a cup of good chicken stock
1 chopped onion
2 chopped celery
1/3 of a small chopped chillie
2 chopped carrots
2 chopped celery
1 small clove of chopped garlic
Chopped parsley to garnish (dried or fresh)
For the dumplings
6 large eggs
4 cups of plain flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon of vegetable oil
What to do:
Get the fire roaring!
First up, chop up your chicken, de-bone if using the thighs and cook these in a little oil in your large pot on your hob
After 4-5 minutes of cooking the chicken add the onion, carrot, celery, chillie and garlic. Stir well
After about two minutes add the water and chicken stock and mix all together
Bring this to a gentle boil
Whilst boiling you can crack on with the simple but tasty dumplings
In a bowl, beat the 6 large eggs
The gradually stir in the flour and a little bit of the salt
Gourmet Shark Tip: You are looking to form a firm but sticky dough, so add the flour a little by little each time
Set the dumpling mixture aside and check the soup, trying some of the veg. I personally don’t like the vegetables to soft, but you don’t want them hard either
When you are happy with your soup, get a teaspoon of the dough and form into a round ball about the size of a small lime
Gently plop the dumplings in to the soup and cook these until they float to the top
Serve up in a dish a bowl and garnish with the parsley.
Snuggles in a bowl, yum!
