I love Mariano’s chicken and dumpling soup (Mariano’s is a grocery store near me) but it can be hit or miss. Sometimes too much salt or sometimes not creamy enough, so I thought I would try to make a knock off version at home. It was a SUCCESS! I did cheat some, I didn’t make homemade dumplings – I found some in the freezer section. You could easily make them, but I was feeling lazy. Since scrolling and scrolling for the recipe on food blogs isn’t fun, I’ve posted the recipe right below this and included more details/tips after it.
Chicken and dumpling soup
Delicious and easy chicken and dumpling soup that will rival any grocery store or restaurant
Servings: 4 people
Ingredients
- 1 chicken breast
- 1 large carrot
- 1 red onion
- 1/2 lb green beans
- 3 celery stalks
- 1/4 cup flour
- 2 cups 2% milk
- 1.5 bouillon cubes
- 3 cups water
- fresh sage
- fresh oregano
- fresh thyme
- 1 tbsp parsley
- 2 tsp celery salt
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- salt and pepper
- frozen dumplings I used Chateau Dumplings
- 1 lemon
Instructions
- Dice carrots, onion and celery into small pieces. Cut ends of green beans off and chop into 1/2 inch pieces
- Saute vegetables (without green beans) in two tablespoons of butter until translucent
- Add in a flour and saute until browned
- Slowly add in 2 cups of milk, stirring constantly until a thickened roux is formed
- add in 3 cups of water and 1 and a half bouillon cubes. You can also replace the bouillon cubes and water with 3 cups of chicken stock.
- Add in sage, oregano and thyme still on the stem. You will want to add in 3-4 stalks of each
- Add in additional spices, garlic powder, celery salt, salt and pepper to taste.
- Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer for about 20 minutes
- While soup is simmering, chop up chicken breast into bite sized pieces
- Add chicken pieces straight to the soup and add in the green beans
- Continue to simmer for 15-20 minutes or until chicken is cooked
- Drop in the frozen dumplings. If you do not have dumplings, you could also add in gnocchi
- Finally add in salt and pepper to taste and a squeeze of half a lemon
OKAY! Now for some tips:
- I used red onions because I had them on hand, I really love red onions but if they aren’t for you, yellow onions would work out just as great
- I’m trying to get better at actually measuring out spices, if this tastes a little light on spice, just add a little more of everything.
- At the end, if it isn’t creamy enough for you and is too watery add a tablespoon of flour with a tablespoon of butter (melted) whisk it up and pour it into the soup. Let it simmer awhile longer and it will thicken up.
- Like I said, I didn’t make the dumplings, I bought them frozen. It was a shortcut and it was great. If you don’t want to use dumplings you can use gnocchi.
- I didn’t have any fresh parsley on hand, but if I did I would have garnished with it.