4.6 Hearty Deer Camp Chicken and Dumpling Soup

A Hearty Soup that can be served to feed many and is a popular item for our deer camping menu. I will often make a homemade cornbread on a large cooking sheet to accompany the soup.

• Ingredients
• Soup Base
• 4 cups chopped cooked and boned chicken thighs and legs meat
• 2 cup finely chopped celery
• 3 cups chopped carrots
• 3 teaspoons of salt
• 3 teaspoons black pepper
• 5 quarts of homemade chicken broth
• 2 cup chopped onions
• 6 cloves of garlic minced
• water or extra chicken broth
• Dumplings
• 4 eggs
• 4 cups a flour
• 1 cup of milk
• 2 teaspoons of salt
• 2 teaspoons of black pepper
• Directions
• Stock
• In a 12-quart stockpot, bring to boil chicken meat, celery, carrots, salt, pepper, chicken broth, onions, and garlic. Add enough water to fill the pot 3 inches from the rim. Bring to boil and simmer on medium heat for 5 hours. Adding water if needed.
• Dumplings
• In a large mixing bowl, combined flour, salt, and black pepper.
• Making a hole in the center of the flour mixture, crack the eggs. Stir with a wooden spoon from the center out, scraping the sides of the bowl. The dumplings should be the consistency of a very sticky dough.
• Bring it together
• After the stock has boiled a couple of hours and the carrots are tender. Add water or additional stock if the water has reduced too much.
• With a wooden spoon, drop dumpling dough by the spoon full into the boiling stock. Stir in between frequently so the dumplings don’t stick together and the free float in the pot.
• Cover the pot and let boil for 30 minutes. 
• Check one dumpling by cutting it in half to check it is cooked in the center and not doughy.