Jamaican Chicken Soup with Dumplings

Welcome to The Storied Recipe Podcast, a podcast about food, culture, and love. 

This recipe for Jamaican Chicken Soup came from my podcast guests, Ashley and Precious, a daughter and mother duo. Make sure you listen to their episode Jamaican Chicken Soup with Ashley and Her Mother Precious while you make their Jamaican Chicken Soup!   

This warm, hearty soup is just what is needed during the colder months. This Jamaican chicken soup recipe will immediately be added to your list of one-pot meals, plus the dumplings are easy to make and only require 3 ingredients. It is a delicious soup made with tender chicken, flavorful spices, and soft and chewy dumplings. It is also an amazing recipe because it is also made in Jamaica for those who are sick (see more below).

P.S. If you are looking for more Caribbean soups, try this Haitian Joumou (Pumpkin) Soup recipe!

Ashley and Precious's Memories of Making Jamaican Soup

Ashley and her mother, Precious, shared this recipe with us, along with memories of 4 different generations of women making the soup in a cozy Brownstone house in New York City.

Precious began cooking for her siblings before she was a teenager. After she left Jamaica at 14, she cooked for 10 people every day in her new home. This soup was a staple and made Precious feel as if a piece of Jamaica had been transplanted into the middle of the city.

As Precious raised Ashley, Ashley's grandmother and great-grandmother were often in the home, along with aunts, and uncles, and cousins. Ashley remembers the sound of the pumpkin-thickened broth boiling and bubbling in the background as she slid down the banister with her cousins.

Top Tip

If you use the Scotch Bonnet or Habanero pepper, take it out as *soon* as it begins to soften. I left mine in too long and the result was way too spicy for some of us! My mistake - they warned me! 

Ingredients & Substitutions

• Whole Chicken - Substitution: chicken legs and chicken thighs (bone-in/skin on – 8-10 pieces)
• Pumpkin - Substitution: Diced butternut squash or 1 can of pumpkin puree (15 oz)
• Onion
• Carrots
• Cho Cho - Also known as chayote squash; Substitution: Diced turnips
• Fresh Corn - Substitution: Frozen corn kernels if fresh isn’t available 
• Potatoes - Golden potatoes work best; if you want a little bit of sweetness, you can substitute with sweet potatoes
• Thyme Sprigs
• Green Onion - aka Spring Onion
• Scotch Bonnet Pepper - Substitution: 1 habanero pepper or habanero hot sauce to taste
• Jamaican Cock Soup Mix - Substitution: Chicken Bouillon to make chicken stock
• Salt and Black Pepper - Substitution: Other seasoning salt if you prefer
• Oil - any flavorless oil will do: sunflower oil, canola oil, etc.

Ingredients for Jamaican Dumplings

• White Flour - you can substitute this for gluten-free flour, this recipe from That Girl Cooks Healthy has a gluten-free Jamaican dumpling recipe
• Cornmeal
• Salt

Instructions

• Make the dumplings: In a large bowl, mix flour, cornmeal, and salt. Gradually add warm water, forming a dough. Knead until smooth, then divide dough into small balls and set aside.
• Season chicken with salt and pepper. 
• Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat on the stove top, add onions until translucent, then add chicken and cook for 2–3 minutes.
• Add pumpkin, thyme, scotch bonnet (whole), scallions, soup mix, salt, and pepper. Fill the pot ¾ full with water, reduce heat to medium heat, cover, and cook for 5 minutes.
• Next flatten each dumpling into a small circle, adding them one by one to the pot. Stir gently, cover, and cook for 8–10 minutes.
• Add potatoes, cho cho, corn, and turnips, then cover and cook for 10 minutes. Add carrots and cook until all hard vegetables are knife-tender.
• Lightly mash some pumpkin and potato to thicken. Cook until chicken is tender and slightly falling off the bone, but vegetables are not mushy. Remove scallions, scotch bonnet, and thyme before serving.

Tips for Making Dumplings

Making the dumplings

• Add the water slowly so the dumplings don't become too soggy and can't hold their shape

Shaping

• Flattened disks such as the pictures show 
• Or Jamaican spinners which are cylinder-shaped
• Make sure that your dumplings are roughly the same size so they will cook evenly

Boiling the dumplings

• Make sure the water is at a rapid boil or else the texture won't be right

source: The Seasoned Skillet 

A Healing Soup for Illness

According to Precious, this is the soup Jamaicans serve to the sick. It is the perfect soup to serve on a cold day when everyone's immune system might need a little boost.  And it certainly must be one of the most nourishing dishes imaginable! Bone broth is known for its healing properties, such as improving sleep, collagen boosts, and reducing inflammation. In addition to chicken broth, this soup is plentiful in vitamin-rich vegetables like pumpkin, chayote squash, potatoes, turnips, and carrots.

Equipment

• Large stockpot
• Mixing bowl

Storage

Store any leftover soup in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 2-3 days

More Caribbean Recipes

More Soup Recipes

Listen to Ashley and Precious's Episode

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Recipe

Jamaican Chicken Soup

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5 from 5 reviews

• Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
• Yield: 12 servings 1x

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Description

This authentic Jamaican Chicken Soup recipe is a broth thickened with pumpkin and featuring cornmeal dumplings and other nutritious root vegetables.

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Ingredients

Units USM Scale 1x2x3x

Soup Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken, broken down (8-10 pieces) *See Note 1 for substitution
• 1/2 small pumpkin, peeled and diced *See Note 2 for substitution
• 1 onion, diced
• 4-5 carrots, peeled and sliced (thick slices)
• 1 Cho Cho (aka chayote squash), peeled and diced *See Note 3 for substitution
• 4 fresh corn, break each into 2-3 pieces *See Note 4 for substitution
• 4-5 potatoes (golden works best), peeled and diced
• 10-15 sprigs of thyme
• 3 scallions
• 1 scotch bonnet pepper *See Note 5 for substitution
• 1 packet Jamaican Cock Soup Mix *See Note 6 for substitution
• Salt and black pepper, to taste
• 2 tbsp oil (sunflower oil, canola oil, etc.)

Cornmeal Dumplings

• 1 cup white flour *See Note 7
• 1/3 cup cornmeal
• 2 large pinches of salt

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Instructions

Cue Up The Episode!

1. Make sure you listen to Ashley and Precious's episode of The Storied Recipe Podcast, Jamaican Chicken Soup with Ashley and Her Mother Precious while you make their amazing Jamaican Chicken Soup.

Make the dumplings

1. In a large bowl mix flour, cornmeal and salt.
2. Add warm water in a slow stream while mixing with your hands until it just comes together.
3. Roll into a dough ball and knead until mostly smooth.
4. Divide the dough into equal-sized balls and set aside.

Make The Soup

1. Place chicken pieces in a bowl, season with salt and pepper to taste, and toss.
2. Put a large soup pot on the stovetop and heat to medium-high heat.
3. Add oil and onions. Cook onions 1-2 minutes until translucent.
4. Add chicken, skin side down, to the onions and cook for about 3-5 minutes to cook the skin but not brown it.
5. Add pumpkin, thyme, scotch bonnet (whole pepper), scallions (whole), soup mix, salt, and pepper to the pot, and fill the pot with water ¾ of the way full.
6. Reduce heat to medium, cover and cook for 5 minutes.
7. Roll the dumplings into circles, form a fist with your hand, and do a rolling motion so that it becomes a flattened circle (~½ inch thick) with a slight well in the center.
8. Before adding the dumplings to the pot, slightly mash the pumpkin, then add the dumplings one at a time.
9. Stir so that the dumplings don’t stick together. Cover and cook for 8 – 10 minutes.
10. Keep an eye on the Scotch Bonnet or Habanero peppers. You do not want them to burst because the soup will be too spicy for some people. (As Precious says, “It will turn into Pepper Pot Soup”, another dish entirely.)
11. Add potatoes, cho cho, corn, and turnips, cover, and cook for 10 minutes.
12. Add carrots to the pot cover and cook for another 5-10 minutes, until knife tender.
13. Stir the soup, lightly mash the remaining pumpkin and some potato, and add to the pot to thicken the soup.
14. If the chicken is cooked, turn off the heat. If not, cook just a little longer. You do want the chicken to be cooked and slightly falling off the bone, but you do not want the potatoes and carrots to be mushy. It is not necessary to remove the skin.
15. Remove the scallion, scotch bonnet, and thyme.
16. Enjoy a comforting bowl of soup!

Notes

• Note 1: Substitution: chicken legs and thighs (bone-in/skin on – 8-10 pieces)
• Note 2: Substitution: Diced butternut squash or 1 can of pumpkin puree (15 oz)
• Note 3: Substitution: ½ cup diced turnips
• Note 4: Frozen corn kernels if not using fresh corn (only add 5 minutes before the soup is done if using frozen)
• Note 5: Substitution: 1 habanero pepper or habanero hot sauce to taste
• Note 6: Substitution: 2 cubes chicken bouillon
• Note 7: You can substitute this for gluten-free flour, this recipe from That Girl Cooks Healthy has a gluten-free Jamaican dumpling recipe

• Prep Time: 30 minutes
• Cook Time: 45 minutes
• Category: Chicken, Main, Soup
• Cuisine: Caribbean, Jamaican

Nutrition

• Calories: 176
• Sugar: 6
• Sodium: 89
• Fat: 3
• Saturated Fat: 0.4
• Carbohydrates: 34
• Fiber: 4
• Protein: 5
• Cholesterol: 0.1