Chicken and Dumplings with Vegetables

Ingredients

• 1 yellow onion
• 3 carrots
• 3 ribs celery
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 split chicken breasts, about 2.5 lbs. total
• 6 cups chicken broth **
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 cup whole milk
• 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup frozen peas
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1 cup milk

Directions

1. Chop the onion, carrots, and celery into fine pieces. Warm the olive oil in a large soup pot over medium heat, add the vegetables, and cook until the onion has softened and turned translucent. Pull the skin off the split chicken breasts, then nestle the chicken into the pot and pour in the chicken broth. Cover the pot, raise the heat to medium-high, and bring everything to a boil. When it boils, lower the heat to medium-low and simmer for 30 minutes.
2. While the pot bubbles away, make the dumpling dough. Stir the flour, salt, and baking powder together in a large bowl until well mixed. Add the butter, then rub or cut it into the dry ingredients until you do not see any big pieces of butter.
3. Add the milk to the dumpling mixture and stir until the dough comes together in a sticky ball. Move it to a floured work surface and knead it 5 or 6 times, just until it stops sticking to you. Leave the dough to rest for about 5 minutes.
4. Roll the dough to about 1/8" thick, using extra flour as needed so it does not cling to the surface or rolling pin. Cut it into 1x2" rectangles with a pizza cutter or knife. Transfer the cut dumplings back to the bowl until needed, making sure they have a thin coat of flour so they do not stick together.
5. After the chicken breasts have simmered for 30 minutes, move them to a cutting board. Once they are cool enough to handle, use 2 forks to pull the meat from the bones and shred it into bite-sized pieces.
6. With the chicken out of the pot, increase the heat to medium-high and bring the soup back to a boil. Once it is boiling, add the dumplings 1 by 1. Cook them in the soup, stirring now and then, until every dumpling is floating, about 5 minutes.
7. In a small separate bowl, whisk the 1 cup of milk with the 2 Tbsp flour. Pour that mixture into the soup, then stir and cook until the soup comes back to a simmer and thickens a bit.
8. Add the shredded chicken back to the thickened soup, then stir in the frozen peas and chopped parsley. Turn off the heat, taste, and season with salt or pepper as needed. Serve hot.