Doesn’t the title make you drool? I don’t know how I got this idea but one day I was sitting eat my lunch browsing through a recipe magazine, the kind that you get at the grocers these days and I saw a pic of ‘chicken and dumpling soup’ which made me drool. And then I got reminded about a traditional Keralan recipe that I had watched a while ago on youtube that was chicken curry with rice flour dumplings cooked in coconut milk. Oh boy, now I started drooling even more!
And then I could not bring myself to wait any longer. I had to come up with a Paleo version of my fantasized ‘chicken curry and dumplings’. I searched for the traditional recipe on youtube and saw how the dumplings were made using rice flour and they were quite tiny and dense. Not like the typical dumplings in the American ‘Chicken and dumplings’ which are more spongy and bread like. You can check the recipe out here if you like -it’s quite fascinating 🙂 The traditional recipe is called ‘Pidiyum kozhiyum’. This recipe is very unique to a certain Christian community in Kerala and so I was not familiar with this recipe. After watching the video, I felt that I could make the dumplings using cassava flour. So anyways, I set about first making the chicken curry and then made the dumplings. Mixed them both together to get a bowl of yummy deliciousness just thinking about which makes me drool again! Had this soup for two days for both lunch and dinner:) Now this soup is going to be a regular meal for me at least once every week since I cook chicken curry every week and this will be a breeze to make when you have leftover chicken curry:)
OK some things about this recipe. Although I use Kashmiri chilli powder and other spices in this curry, trust me the AIP version also tastes delicious. I know because I lived on that for weeks when I first started AIP. Second I like to add a bit of water chestnut flour to the dumpling dough as that give it a slightly nutty taste. But you can use only cassava flour too. Also, adding fresh grated coconut is what makes the dumplings taste really good. You could use dried shredded coconut instead of fresh coconut but the taste and texture of the balls might vary a bit. Also, fresh curry leaves and extra virgin coconut oil are absolutely essentials in this soup. You will have to visit an Indian grocery store to get fresh curry leaves. Worst case scenario: use dried curry leaves. Another thing, for making the chicken curry, I use the Instant Pot but you can use a regular pot also. Also this soup is great to make when you have leftover chicken curry. You can watch the video for my Instant Pot Chicken Curry
Alright let’s get down to the recipe here. Please let me know how you like this!
- 1 lb boneless chicken thigh pieces, cut into bite size pieces
- 1 large red onion, thinly sliced
- 3 serrano chillies, slit length-wise (omit for AIP)
- 1 by 1 inch piece of fresh ginger root, peeled and chopped fine or grated
- 6 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
- 8-10 fresh curry leaves (or dried curry leaves)
- 4 whole cloves (or you can use ½ tsp ground clove)
- 2 inch long piece of cinnamon stick (or use 1 tsp ground cinnamon)
- 6-8 whole black peppercorns (omit for AIP)
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- ½ tsp cayenne pepper or Kashmiri chilli powder (omit for AIP)
- 1 tbsp coriander powder (omit for AIP or sub ¼ cup finely chopped fresh cilantro leaves)
- 2 tbsp melted extra virgin coconut oil
- ¼ cup coconut chips (frozen or fresh)
- ⅔ cup cassava flour
- ⅓ cup water chestnut flour (or sub tigernut flour)
- ¼ tsp sea salt
- 1 tbsp olive oil or melted coconut oil
- 2 tbsp fresh grated coconut (or shredded coconut)
- About 1 cup hot water
- 1-2 tsp extra olive oil as needed
- 3 cups water
- ¼ tsp sea salt
- 1 clove garlic, thinly sliced
- 4-6 curry leaves
- ½ cup thick coconut milk
- Add all the ingredients for the chicken curry to the insert pot. Crush the onion slices using your hands to break them a bit and then close the lid. Turn valve to sealing position and press 'pressure cook' and change time to 6 mins. After pressure is reached let stand for 5 mins after which release pressure and open the lid. Keep curry aside.
- Add all the ingredients for the chicken curry to a wide bottomed cooking pot. Crush the onion slices using your hands to break them a bit and then close the lid. (It should be tight-fitting lid). Slow cook for 10 mins. Then open lid and stir and again close and cook on low heat for another 10 mins. Turn heat off and keep aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, add the flour/s, the salt, oil and the coconut. Then slowly add the hot water while stirring the mix using a spatula, Continue to add water until the mix looks completely wet enough to form a dough. Let the mix cool for a couple mins so that is cool enough to handle. Then using your hands knead to form a smooth dough adding extra olive oil as necessary. Now divide the dough into about 12-14 equal balls. Keep aside.
- In a medium sized cooking pot, heat the 3 cups water along with the garlic and the curry leaves and the salt till the water starts to boil. Now slowly add the dumplings to this and turn heat to low. Partially cover with a lid and let simmer for about 7mins until the dumplings are fully cooked. Now add the coconut milk and cook for 1 more min and turn heat off.
- For serving the soup , either you can mix all of the curry with the dumpling coconut milk mixture and serve individual portions out. Or for each individual serving, in a bowl, add some of the chicken curry followed by some of the dumpling mixture on top.
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Hello, my wife and I are making your recipe (sounds so good) but we noticed there’s no liquid in the curry part, for instant pot or stove. It won’t burn without liquid?
thank you for your question! You don’t need to add any water since the onions and the chicken itself will let out enough water to cook the chicken. It will be a thickish kind of gravy. If you want it more thinner (runnier), you could add 1/2 a cup of water to the curry recipe. Later anyways in the recipe, you will be mixing the curry with the soup. Hope that helps. Good luck cooking and I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do! Lmk how you make out! Best, Indira