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. Add warm water in a slow stream while mixing with your hands until it just comes together. Roll into a dough ball and knead until mostly smooth. 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. Add oil and onions. Cook onions 1-2 minutes until translucent.
3. Add chicken, skin side down, to the onions and cook for about 3-5 minutes to cook the skin but not brown it.
4. 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. Reduce heat to medium, cover and cook for 5 minutes.
5. 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.
6. Before adding the dumplings to the pot, slightly mash the pumpkin, then add the dumplings one at a time.
7. Stir so that the dumplings don’t stick together. Cover and cook for 8 – 10 minutes.
8. 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.)
9. Add potatoes, cho cho, corn, and turnips, cover, and cook for 10 minutes. Add carrots to the pot cover and cook for 5-10 minutes, until knife tender.
10. Stir the soup, lightly mash the remaining pumpkin and some potato, and add to the pot to thicken the soup.
11. If 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.
12. Remove the scallion, scotch bonnet and thyme.
13. Enjoy a comforting bowl of soup!