Chicken And Plantain Dumpling Soup (Caldo De Bolas)

1. 1

   Place chicken, leeks, carrots, quartered onion, celery (or fennel), cilantro, parsley and water into a large pot. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook for an hour skimming any foam that surfaces. Remove chicken to a bowl and maintain simmer while preparing the filling. Place the plantains into the broth and simmer about 15-30 minutes until tender.

2. 2

   Once chicken is cool enough to handle, remove all meat to a bowl and return bones, skin and wings to soup and simmer another hour. Then strain and skim soup and set aside. Chop the meat of one breast and one leg. Reserve remaining chicken for another use.

3. 3

   Saute green pepper and diced onion in 2 T oil until starting to brown. Add garlic and cook another minute. Remove half of mixture to a bowl and set aside. Add 1/2 cup chopped tomatoes (and juice) to pan and strain remaining tomatoes over a bowl. Stir chopped chicken, raisins, peanut butter, cumin, coriander, cinnamon and 1/2 cup broth from soup into pan. Stir until thickened. Cool.

4. 4

   Mash plantains until fairly smooth and stir in egg and enough flour to hold together. Take a piece of dough a little smaller than a golf ball, flatten a bit and stuff 1 T of filling into the center. Push the filling down gently while you fold up the edges of dough to encase the filling in a ball. Complete with all dough. You will have some filling left over.

5. 5

   Heat soup pot again ove medium high heat and add reserved pepper and onion, zucchini and kale. Stir until just starting to brown. Add chicken broth, strained tomatoes and season to taste with salt. Heat to simmer then very gently lower dumplings into soup. Cover and simmer about 10 minutes until dumplings float. Ladle into bowls and garnish with lime wedges, cilantro, and jalapeno slices (the added heat is nice).

* Per serving · 4 servings · Values may vary.