Slow-Cooker Creamy Chicken and Vegetable Dumpling Soup 

There is nothing more soul-soothing than a pot of soup cooking away.  Except well a soup cooking in a slow cooker is pretty fabulous too.  Enter dumplings.  A slow cooker soup with dumplings; now that’s awesome!  This is what we had on Halloween.  Picture trick or treating in the cold and walking in to a warm house with the aroma of a home made soup welcoming you home 😊

Serves 8 to 10

8 Cups sodium-reduced chicken stock

2 Large stalks of celery, sliced

2 Medium potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 Large carrot, sliced

1 Large onion, diced

1/2 Small red pepper, diced

796 ml can of whole tomatoes

3 Boneless, skinless chicken breasts (fat trimmed off)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp turmeric

2 Cups milk (I used 2%)

2 tbsp all purpose flour

1 Batch of Dumplings :

2 Cups all purpose flour (whole wheat is better but alas, I went with white)

1 ½ tbsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

1 Large egg, beaten

¾ Cup to 1 Cup milk (I used 1%)

Bring the stock to a boil in a regular pot.

Meanwhile, lay all the veggies and tomatoes (including the liquid in the can) at the bottom of the crockpot and place the raw chicken breasts on top.

When the stock comes to a boil pour it over the chicken and vegetables.

Add the salt, pepper and turmeric; mix well.

Cover the crockpot with the lid to and set it to low, simmer the soup for 8 hours.

After the soup has cooked for the 8 hours, whisk together the milk and flour, ensuring there are no lumps.

Remove the chicken breasts from the soup and leave them to rest on a cutting board and then stir in the flour and milk mixture, leave to simmer until the soup has thickened (about 10 minutes).

When the chicken is cool enough to handle, cut it up into large chunks (about one inch cubes) and return the chucks to the soup.

Then, prepare the dumplings: mix all the dry ingredients together and then mix in the beaten egg and a ¾ cup of milk; mix until a dough forms (if it’s too dry then add a little bit more milk, tablespoon by tablespoon). You want a dough but on the dry side, if the dough ends up too wet then add more flour, wet dumplings won’t work.

Dollop in the dumplings, a teaspoon at a time and then cover the crockpot with the lid (the heat should still be set to low).

Let the dumplings simmer for 20 minutes, up to an hour but very important; do not remove the lid until the dumplings have finished cooking.