Chicken Stock
First lets make a basic chicken stock. The ingredients in my chicken stock is really simple. I use chicken bones, water, salt and black peppercorn. That’s it. I do not add anything else while making the stock. Take a pressure cooker and add in everything and cook on a low simmer for one hour. Keep the flame at the lowest setting possible. Cook for a full one hour and ignore the number of whistles.
After the said one hour, remove the cooker from heat and wait for the pressure to settle manually. Open the cooker and remove any excess fat that may be floating on the top. Set aside.

The dumplings
In the mean time, while the soup is cooking, lets make the dumplings. I have used plain crackers for making the dumplings. Grind the crackers to a coarse powder in the mixie. We are looking at making around 1 cup cracker meal / powder. I used about 15 crackers. Take a bowl and add in the ground cracker meal, salt, baking powder, red chilli flakes, Italian seasoning, ghee and eggs. The baking powder will make the dumplings light and fluffy. Mix everything to form a cohesive dough. The dough will be wet. Chill the dough for 30 minutes. The dough will become firm during the rest time. After chilling the dough for 30 minutes, make small balls. Wet your hands in water and start making small balls about an inch in size. I like to keep the balls small as it will cook evenly when boiled in soup. Keep the balls in a greased plate. Chill again until we are ready to use.

The Soup

Heat oil in a pan and add in the finely chopped garlic, onions and carrots. Add in a teaspoon of Italian seasoning. Sauté for a minute.  Add in the cubes of chicken and sauté for a minute more. Strain the chicken stock directly onto the pan. Discard the bones. When the stock is simmering, add in one stock cube and the dumplings. Add in the dumplings one by one so it does not stick to one another.

Cover the pot with a lid and simmer the soup on a low flame for 30 minutes. The dumplings will become big while cooking. Chicken soup with dumplings is ready. Serve hot. This is a complete meal and you do not need anything else to accompany the soup. This soup is our current favorite at home.