Recipe: Mom's Chicken & Dumpling Soup

In 1989 there was a restaurant in Farmington called Rueben’s Rueben which I ran with my family for 3 years. It has been many different places since then, and is currently Taqueria Victoria. Rueben’s Rueben featured sandwiches and subs, burgers and fries, and homemade chili and soups. I’m not 100% sure how or when it started, but sometimes on Wednesdays my mom (being the southern woman that she was) would make chicken and dumpling soup. It was an instant hit and became so popular we made it our regular Wednesday soup. It was so popular that people would call the day before to pre-order it for the following day. We only made a certain amount and some days we would run out before noon…and we opened at 10:30

It was not a difficult soup to make, it’s a basic chicken soup that you would make if making chicken noodle. They thing that made her soup so good were the dumplings. I have tried a lot of chicken and dumplings and most the time the dumplings are dense, not light and fluffy. This recipe has dumplings that melt in your mouth and are absolutely delicious. This Sunday is Mother’s Day. My mom passed away in 2018. As a tribute to her, I am sharing her recipe. I make it regularly, here in our household, and it is a big favorite. We hope everyone enjoys this recipe and remember to reach out to your mom if she’s still with you . . . she won’t be forever. 😢

To make it you can use a canned chicken stock, but of course not me, I’ll make it from scratch to get the best flavor. It is not a hard recipe it just takes some planning and the end results are worth it. I start by making my own stock. Costco rotisserie chickens make the best stock. Remove the meat from the chickens, cube or shred it and set aside for later. Using a 3 gallon stock pot add the bones, skin and drippings from the containers to the pot.

Add rough cut carrots, celery and onions and cover with water and bring to a boil, reduce heat and bring to a simmer.

Add a couple tablespoons of chicken base or 5 or 6 bouillon cubes and let simmer for at least a couple of hours, the longer the more concentrated your stock will become.

Strain the broth in a colander and discard the bones. Set the broth aside while preparing the soup. Do not skim off the fat, it is important for making the dumplings super tasty.

Using the same 3 gallon pot place 4 T butter and heat on medium heat. Add onions, celery, and carrots and cook 5-6 minutes. Add Stock and cook 30 minutes on medium heat. At this time you should taste your broth to see if it is seasoned to your liking, you may need to add water if it’s too salty but you will likely need to add some more chicken base or bouillon. Remember all that chicken you took off the bones? Well now we are going to add it to the soup. Use as much or as little as you wish, there is no right or wrong amount. You should now have your soup ready for the dumplings.

To make the dumplings start with sifting the flour, baking powder, salt and pepper together. Add melted butter and milk and mix but don’t over mix. Lumps are ok. Over mixing will make the dumplings chewy. To cook the dumplings you will drop them in a spoonful at a time into the simmering soup. They take around 5 minutes to cook all the way and they will expand to 2 or 3 times the size so I start with testing one to get the size desired before making all of them.

Once you have your desired size cook batches of dumplings until all your batter is gone. It may take 2 or 3 batches to get them all cooked, I will place the cooked dumpling on a plate while I finish cooking the rest of them. As the dumplings cook you will notice the soup broth getting cloudy and slightly thicker, this is what you want to happen. Once all the dumplings are all cooked the soup is ready to eat. Get a bowl, ladle in some soup and add 2 or 3 dumplings to it and enjoy.