(Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Soy Free)

This is our favorite Chicken & Dumplings Recipe adapted to be gluten free, dairy free, and soy free.  If you can eat dairy pastured butter/ghee and raw pastured milk are excellent in this recipe.  Always opt for organic vegetables, herbs and spices to avoid irradiation and toxins.  To make it ultra Texan add a kick of cayenne or chili powder to the dumplings and a few pinches of jalepeno pepper flakes to the soup base with the dried herbs.  The sky’s the limit!

Soup Base

3 – 4 quarts home-made chicken stock (pastured chicken stock recipe)

4 tbsp coconut oil (alternatively use pastured lard/tallow)

1 onion, diced

8 carrots, sliced

1 bunch celery, sliced

6 cloves garlic, diced

1 bay leaf

1 tsp ground pepper

2 tsp Celtic Sea Salt

1 tsp dried parsley

1 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp granulated garlic

Meat from 1 whole roasted chicken*

¼ cup finely chopped flat leaf parsley

Real Celtic Sea Salt & Organic Fresh ground pepper to taste

Dumplings

2 cups Pamela’s Baking Mix

¼ cup coconut oil (substitute pastured lard or tallow if desired)

¼ cup coconut milk (substitute pastured raw milk or butter milk if desired)

1 tsp fresh ground pepper

1 tsp Celtic Sea Salt

2 pastured eggs lightly beaten

Melt coconut oil (or pastured lard/tallow, or if not dairy free pastured butter/ghee are delicious additions) in a deep pot over medium/high heat. Add onions, celery and carrots and sautee until slightly softened and onions are translucent. Add garlic and sautee a few more minutes more being careful not to brown. Add herbs, fresh ground pepper, and stir allowing the oils to release for a few minutes.

Add the chicken and stir to combine.* (see alternative method below)

Carefully add the chicken stock, at room temperature or heated. Stir and allow to come to a gentle simmer while making the dumpling mixture.

In a bowl combine salt, pepper and baking mix and combine. In a larger bowl mix lightly beaten eggs and half of coconut milk reserving some. Gently add melted, and cooled, coconut oil (or tallow/lard/butter/ghee) being careful to not scramble the eggs. Add the dry ingredients and stir carefully until it just comes together. Do not over mix. The dough should hold together but still be somewhat crumbly. If the dough is too dry add more coconut milk. Alternatively raw pastured milk works great in this recipe.

Any remaining coconut milk, including the remainder of the can, can be added to the soup base. Add the fresh parsley reserving some for garnish. Add Celtic Sea Salt and stir.

When the soup is gently simmering start adding the dumplings one small spoonful at a time being careful not to crowd the pan. Use another spoon to help scrap off the dumplings into the soup easily and quickly. Cover with a lid and cook for 15 minutes at a gentle simmer, do not remove lid until 15 minutes are up.

Turn soup off, vent lid and allow to sit for 30 minutes. Soup will be plenty hot and the dumplings will have had time to set. Serve in soup bowls, add salt and pepper to taste and garnish with remaining parsley. Serve with your favorite gluten free sides. For those not on a dairy free diet you can add a dollop of crème fraiche if desired.

*Use a previously roasted chicken to make this a delicious and easy recipe. We recommend always planning your menus to save time. By preparing a meal of roasted chickens the day before you will have plenty of bones to make a stock that night and meat from one of the chickens for use in the soup. If you are using stock out of the freezer and are making this on delicious soup on short notice that’s ok! Just use 4 to 8 chicken thighs, salt and pepper them and sprinkle on your favorite spice maybe some a pinch of yellow curry on each and brown them on both sides in the pan before you add the onions.

We use the pastured chicken stock recipe from Nourishing Traditions and the Weston A Price Foundation website but with a few twists.

Pastured chickens are ultra nutritious and delicious but usually cost more than your average store bought poultry so we love recipes that help us utilize every last bit of goodness. Don’t throw away the bones when you make fried chicken, roasted chicken or other meals. Save them in the freezer and make a weekly batch of rich bone broth. Your family’s health and vitality will shine thanks to all the amazing, bio-available nutrients in a real bone broth and your family’s food budget can be stretched even further. In fact when trying to eat naturally on a budget we highly recommend utilizing many bone broths, and various rich soups to fill bellies in lean times.

If you can’t afford pastured chicken in these hard times ask your local farmers if they have any stewing birds. Roosters and other older chickens that are culled are often too chewy for roasting but make absolutely fantastic, rich, nutritious and robust bone broths and the meat once cooked for so long becomes tender and delicious.