January 24: Chicken Stew with Herb Dumplings

My ankle is feeling much better today, and I could bear weight on it, so I just went ahead and did my grocery shopping as usual. I had a lot of cleaning up to do in the kitchen, especially the crockpot, which was still soaking from the bread pudding. It took me about 15 minutes to get it clean. Anyway, I decided to make today's dinner instead of yesterday's. I started this meal which is from the "Hearty Stews and Chilies" section of the cookbook, at around 11:00am. I gathered up the ingredients:

 

I chopped up 3 carrots, an onion, a stalk of celery, and a bell pepper, then I put them in the crockpot with 3 cups of chicken broth. That cooked for 2 hours on low.

 

Then I mixed up 1/3 of a cup of flour with 1 cup of chicken broth and stirred it into the soup.

 

This is what it looked like:

 

I chopped up 2 chicken breasts and 2 red potatoes, then added them to the crockpot with some frozen peas and sliced mushrooms. I seasoned it with basil, rosemary, and tarragon:

 

All that cooked on low for 4 hours:

 

Then I mixed up a cup of biscuit mix with 1/3 cup of milk, added some more herbs, and dropped 4 spoonfuls of the dough onto the soup:

 

That cooked for 30 minutes uncovered and 30 more minutes covered:

 

It was supposed to make 4 servings, and it did make 4 dumplings, but there was a lot of soup leftover. It is good without the dumplings too, so it will be good for lunch tomorrow:

 

While the dumplings were cooking, hubby took the kids to the store for socks, and they bought me these flowers because of my sprained ankle. Aren't they pretty?

 

The soup was very good. Perfect for a cold winter's night. I will make it again. I think I might try thyme next time in place of the rosemary.