Jamaican Chicken Soup
Jamaican Chicken Soup is the perfect chicken soup to make when you're looking for something hearty and flavourful, feeling sick or simply craving a bowl of something heartwarming! This classic Caribbean chicken soup recipe is made with a chicken and pumpkin soup base, then filled with dumplings, vegetables, and hearty ground provisions, such as yellow yam and potatoes!
Servings: 6 servings
Equipment
- Large Stockpot for cooking the soup
- Long Handled Wooden Spoon for stirring
- Ladle for serving
Ingredients
- 12 cups Water
- 4 Chicken Thighs skin-off, bone-in
- 2 Chicken Breasts halved
- 6 cloves Garlic crushed
- 6-8 Whole Pimento Seeds or allspice berries
- 1/2 medium Pumpkin cut into small cubes
- 1-2 Corn each cut into 4
- 1 large Carrot sliced
- 2 thick slices Yellow Yam cut into 4 chunks. optional
- 1 medium Chocho cayote, peeled and sliced
- 1 medium Turnip cut into small cubes, optional
- 6-8 sprigs Fresh Thyme
- 2 stalks Spring Onion escallion/green onion, crushed
- 6 Boiled Flour Dumpling see below for recipe
- 1 Scotch Bonnet Pepper optional
- 1 pkg Grace Cock Soup Mix or Chicken Noodle Soup Mix
- 2 tsp Seasoning Salt or salt, to taste
- 1/2 tsp Fresh Cracked Black Pepper
Flour Dumpling
- 1 cup All Purpose Flour
- 1/2 cup Water more, or less may be needed
- 1/4 tsp Salt to taste
Other Optional Ingredients or Substitutes for Above Listed Ingredients
- Ground Provision yams, potatoes, sweet potatoes, dasheen, eddo and cassava
Instructions
Cook Chicken & Pumpkin
- In a large stockpot, bring to rapid boil 12 cups of water. Carefully add the chicken, garlic and pimento to the pot. Allow to boil for about 15 minutes or until the chicken is partially cooked. Then add pumpkin, corn, carrots, yellow yam (or other ground provision) and continue to cook for about 15 minutes or until pumpkin softened and chicken is tender.
- When pumpkin has softened into the soup (water is now an orange colour), add the remaining fresh ingredients - cayote (chocho), turnip, dumpling, thyme, green onion (escallion), and scotch bonnet pepper.
- Reduce heat to medium. Stir in Grace Cock Soup Mix, seasoning salt and black pepper. Taste and adjust if necessary; allow to simmer for an additional 15 to 20 minutes. Remove scotch bonnet pepper and thyme sprigs, serve while hot and enjoy!
Flour Dumpling
- In a medium mixing bowl, add flour and salt then gradually add water and use your hand to knead and form the dough for the dumpling. Dough should be soft but not sticky and wet.
- Pinch or cut off 6 equal sized pieces. In the palm of your hand using a circular motion, form each piece into a ball, flatten slightly, and fold the edges of the dough into the center creating small round wheels. Set each dumpling aside.
Notes
Flour Dumplings – you may not need all the water listed to form the dumplings. I needed 1/4 cup + 3 tbsp of water.
Level of Spice – don’t let the scotch bonnet pepper burst, unless you want a spicer soup.
Water/Stock Level – always make sure there’s enough water in your pot to cover your ingredients at all times. Enough water to cover the chicken and pumpkin during the cooking process. Enough water to cover all your vegetables and dumplings to allow the soup to simmer.
See detailed notes above for additional tips.