I have some good soup recipes! (Lol, surprise, right?) Chicken and dumplings: 1 bag baby carrots (or 3-4 regular carrots, which you will then need to peel and cut into chunks/slices)  1 bunch celery (rinsed and cut into chunks--I don't like celery so I leave the pieces big enough to easily pick out, but the flavor is important) 1 onion--chop/mince about half of it. (The three items above, by the way, are a mirepoix [meer-pwah] and are the basis of a number of soups and stews) You will also need: white wine chicken stock or chicken stock cubes/paste (I use Better than Bouillon)  butter flour poultry seasoning or a mix of herbs you like--good ones are Herbs de Provence, basil, marjoram, thyme, oregano...whatever combination you like. A hint of nutmeg is not unwelcome here, either.  You can also add a little lemon juice if you like And of course chicken. I'm not a fan of dark meat and I usually do a quicker version of this, so I buy a 2-lb or so pkg of chicken tenders (raw chicken, not breaded or anything) because they taste good and cook fast. Sometimes I'll buy a small package of thighs for extra flavor, or bone-in skin-on breasts (the bones and skin add some flavor, but again, it's good without them so it's up to you/how much time you have). Traditionally a whole chicken in used, but the reason I stopped doing that as much is the length of time it takes for a whole chicken to cool and be shredded, plus using the whole chicken sometimes results in bits of skin and bone in the soup that need to be found and picked out. But if you want to use a whole chicken, the soup is the same, you just boil it longer--until the chicken is done--and let it sit half an hour or so to cool before shredding it with your fingers or two forks. So: Sweat the mirepoix in a good-sized pot with a lid. "Sweating" means cooking in a little oil with salt & pepper at a very low temp--you should barely hear the sizzle--for a good ten-fifteen   ff8  minutes until the onions are soft. Once that's done, you have a few options, depending on what chicken you're using: for a whole chicken or skin-on bone-in pieces, you can scoop the veg out of the pot and turn up the heat a little to brown the chicken (sometimes I skip this, but it does add flavor). Once it's brown (or if you're skipping that step), pour in a good splash of white wine--about half a cup - one cup (you can omit the wine, too, if you happen to be a teenager without access to it) and/or chicken stock--3-4 cups at least, you want enough to cover the chicken pieces by an inch or so (if using a whole chicken, don't cover it, because that's too much liquid; just use enough liquid to almost cover it and make sure to turn it once in a while. The heat from the simmering liquid will cook it all once the lid is on). If you're using chicken tenders, add the wine and stock and let the veg simmer for 20 min or so before adding the chicken pieces, because the chicken will cook much faster than the carrots/celery. You don't want the veg falling apart necessarily but neither is it nice when it's crunchy (IMO). At this point, pour out one cup of milk (for the dumplings) and set it aside to warm up a bit. You want it around room temp. You can skip this if you like and use cold milk, but they rise better if the milk has a chance to warm up for even 15 min or so. So simmer the pot, covered, until the chicken is cooked. Remove big pieces/while chicken and set aside to cool. Taste the liquid for seasonings, add more of whatever you think it needs. (If you use tenders, you can use two forks to shred them right in the pot, or remove them if you prefer. Shred the chicken.  Now. Scoop out some of the cooking liquid into a measuring cup--you want about half a cup of liquid in a one cup measuring cup or larger. Add flour to the liquid until it's like a runny paste. Pour the mix back into the soup and stir--this will thicken the soup a bit. For the dumplings: Sift together (You really do need to sift it!) in a large bowl: 2 C flour 3 tsp baking powder (not baking soda, baking powder)  1 tsp salt Using a pastry cutter or two forks/your hands, cut in 2 Tbsp butter or shortening/lard (butter has best flavor). 2 Tbsp is 30g, if that makes it easier. I usually go a little over and use about 35g. Cut or rub it in until no big chunks remain, you want the butter in tiny flour-covered pieces. Add about 1/4 C dried parsley to the mixture, and stir it in or use the pastry cutter to mix it in. I usually just grab a good handful of the parsley and crush it in my hand a little as I drop it in. You can use fresh if you want, but you'll need to chop it up and use about half the amount. The dumplings taste good with the dried and the green flecks look pretty, so I don't bother. Make sure the soup--with chicken added back in--is at a good strong simmer/mild boil now. Pour the milk into the dimpling mix and stir until it's all mixed--it will be a sticky, lumpy dough. Use a large spoon to drop heaps of dumpling dough onto the soup. Work quickly. The second you drop the last bit of dough onto the soup, cover the pot with the lid, and after a few seconds, turn the heat down to barely a simmer. (I find the Low setting on most stoves is too low, but some are too high, in which case use a diffuser or you'll need to keep moving the pot/removing it from heat for a few seconds to avoid burning the bottom of the soup. You CANNOT OPEN THE POT TO CHECK, unfortunately, because it will make the dumplings hard. The POT MUST STAY COVERED FOR TWENTY MINUTES. I find that if I lean close to the pot at the right temp, I will be able to just barely hear it simmering. This does take a little practice, unfortunately, but it's worth it. You might also have a stove with a perfect Simmer setting, which is awesome. So after twenty minutes, take the lid off and check. The dumplings should be firm (but not hard); when you poke them with your finger or a fork you should be  26bd   able to easily see that they have a nice bready sort of texture. If you poke them and they stick to your finger/the fork they're not done enough; cover the pot and give them another minute or two (at this point they have risen enough and are close enough to done that this won't affect the texture). Let the soup cool a bit. Serve in bowls, with one or two dumplings per person.