Chicken and Clouds

This was a creamy, filling, and comforting soup from The Pioneer Woman. If you go to her site the not chicken and dumplings.  However, As I'm assembling the soup Anthony says, "Oh yum! Chicken and Clouds!" Well then, if you think of this as chicken and clouds you won't be disappointed.

The comments on the origional recipe are great. People have definite opinions on what is a noodle and what is a dumpling and how her recipe is

Because I had some time and enjoy this stuff, I decided to take the more labor intensive path and so this soup was a labor of love. It took me 2 days to make but you can also make it in less time if you don't buy an uncooked chicken and use canned broth.

Roasted Chicken - I took a little 3lb chicken and rinsed it in cold water. I seasoned it with salt and pepper on both sides and rubbed it in with olive oil. I roasted it about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Let the chicken cool on the stove. While I was waiting I made Brown Butter and Toffee Cookies. Once the chicken is cool remove all the meat from the bones. The meat goes into a container for use the next day and the bones went into a larger pot. 

Homemade Broth - large chop about 1 cup of carrots and a stalk or two of celery. Cut an onion into half. Nestle it all around the chicken bones. Cover with water (I did about 8 cups of water). Season with salt and pepper if you'd like, add thyme or rosemary or any seasoning if you want as well. Bring to a boil on high heat and then reduce the to a simmer on low. Let it hang out on the stove for about 2 hours while you do other things. Like the dishes. When it is done, pour the broth through a strainer into another pot. This will remove all the bones and weird chunks. Then let it refrigerate overnight. Before using I skim the coagulated fat off the top of the broth. If you have never made broth before, it will be a squishy almost jell-o like consistency. It is OK and will be fine. 

    

Now that you have done this prep work, follow the directions below!

Some changes for next time (and updated below)

- omit apple cider (I just didn't like it)

- omit thyme (because I had made the broth with thyme it was a bit over powering)

Changes I made (reflected below): 

- I used half and half for whole recipe because it was cheaper than purchasing both heavy cream and half and half

-As the chicken was already cooked I put it in the bottom of the soup bowls. The chicken heated up when the broth and dumplings were put on top so that way the chicken didn't over cook.

I'll make this again! It was so good!

Chicken and Clouds

Adapted from The Pioneer Woman

Serves 4

Ingredients
1 whole Chicken, meat is bite sized
Salt And Pepper
1/2 cup Finely Diced Carrots
1/2 cup Finely Diced Celery
1 whole Medium Onion, Finely Diced
1/2 teaspoon Ground Thyme
1/4 teaspoon Turmeric
6 cups Low Sodium Chicken Broth
1/2 cup Half-and-half

Dumplings:
1-1/2 cup All-purpose Flour
1/2 cup Yellow Cornmeal
1 Tablespoon (heaping) Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
1-1/2 cup Half-and-half
Salt As Needed

In the large pot, add diced onion, carrots, and celery. Stir and cook for 3 to 4 minutes over medium-low heat. Stir in ground thyme and turmeric, then pour in chicken broth. Stir to combine. Cover pot and simmer.

While chicken is broth is simmering, make the dough for the dumplings: sift together all dry ingredients, then add half-and-half, stirring gently to combine. Set aside.

Add cream into the pot and stir to combine. Drop tablespoons of dumpling dough into the simmering pot. Cover pot halfway and continue to simmer for 15 minutes. Check seasonings; add salt if needed. Allow to sit for 10 minutes before serving.

Put meat in the bottom of the bowls (and some spinach) and cover with dumplings and the broth.

Wonton Soup

Are you ready for my Wonton Soup recipe? I know you have been waiting to see when it would be posted.

While the assembly might take a while (maybe about 1 1/2 hours), this will provide you with lots of meals if you eat alone like me *tear* or a big family meal and a couple small meals. If I am making this for dinner for someone or with my family, I convince my brother or whoever is around to help with the folding.

You can buy all the ingredients at the Chinese grocery store, but also at your regular market. These are in the refrigerated section. Stop and Shop has them near the fresh produce area I think. I normally get the white ones. This time I did a taste test and they have a different texture when cooked but both are fine and I don't really have a preference.

Twin Marquis, Wonton Wrapper (Shanghai style)

Twin Marquis, Wonton Wrapper (Hong Kong style)

The recipe is easy to adjust based on your tastes. Add in more or less of things. Add more meat to the dumplings or make them smaller. Since this is a easy to make/time consuming to assemble recipe I make a double batch to freeze a bunch. That becomes my I'm-starving-after-work-and-need-to-eat-right-now dinner.

I will use ground turkey or pork depending what is on hand at the time. If I had a choice I think the pork is a better texture and has more flavor. For the shrimp, cut them into about 4 pieces and close to the same size. The shrimp cooks fast and you don't want it to over cook. Until you know what seasonings you want for ground pepper/soy sauce/ginger/etc, make and cook a test dumpling then add in more of whatever seasoning you are looking for.

I have never have the correct amount of wrappers to filling so I sometimes toss in some of the wrappers in the water with the wontons and eat them as noodles.

Freeze them on a flat cookie sheet for a couple hours. Then feel free to put into a freezer Ziploc baggie or in a container of your choice!

I made a video of how to fold them but it didn't save properly... I'll make another one next time. In the meantime here is a YouTube video (sorry, music is really loud): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJ33n10ht88. There are many different ways to fold them, as simple as a triangle or really fancy folding techniques. The only problem with the triangle is when you freeze them, the corners may break off.

Put it all in the bowl!

Between a tsp and a tbs of filling, wet two connecting edges
with water, fold into a triangle

Be sure to press out all the air and seal the edges well

Hold triangle flat, middle tip facing you. Wet the top of the right
corner. Fold straight outwards and place the left
corner over the right corner, press to seal.

If you layer them separate with plastic wrap, parchment paper,
or wax paper to prevent sticking

Enjoy!!

Wonton Soup
Makes 1 package of wonton wrappers

1 lb ground turkey or pork

3 - 6 stems of scallion (green onion), chopped

5 - 10 shrimp, not cooked, chopped into fourths (optional)

1 can water chestnuts, chopped

Square Wonton wrappers

1 egg

Ground black pepper
1 - 3 tbsp Soy sauce
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp rice wine
1 big can Chicken Broth
Optional: Green Veggies

Mix everything but the chicken broth and green veg until just combined.
Use a spoon and put the tsp of filling into the middle of each wonton wrapper.
Wet 2 sides of the wrapper with water and fold into a triangle. You can leave them like that or hold the triangle flat, with the point facing you. Place one edge of the right corner over the left edge and pinch together.
Boil water in one pot and heat up chicken broth in another. Cook the vegetables in the chicken broth.
It takes about 4 minutes to cook the wontons if they are fresh. About 6-8 minutes if they are frozen. Cut one open and see if the meat (no pink) and shrimp (pink) are cooked through, if so, serve up! (Bigger ones take a bit longer and smaller ones will cook faster!)