Chicken with Lemon-Thyme Dumplings

For sauce, in a small saucepan, melt the butter. Stir in the 1/4 cup all-purpose flour. Cook and stir over medium heat for 3 minutes. Stir in the 2-1/2 cups chicken stock or broth. Simmer gently, uncovered, for 20 minutes, stirring often. Set aside.

Meanwhile, for dumplings, in a medium mixing bowl, stir together the 1 cup flour, the baking powder, the 1/2 teaspoon fresh or 1/8 teaspoon dried thyme, the sugar, salt, white pepper, sage, and marjoram. Add milk and peel; stir until just moistened. Set bowl aside.

In a 3-quart saucepan, combine chicken pieces, the 2 cups chicken stock, the vegetables, wine, and the 1 teaspoon fresh or 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme. Bring to boiling. Reduce heat; simmer.

Using a small ice-cream scoop or 2 spoons, form 1/8 of the dough into a dumpling; drop onto chicken-vegetable mixture. Repeat with remaining dough, making a total of 8 dumplings. Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink and a wooden toothpick inserted into dumpling comes out clean.

With a slotted spoon, remove dumplings from vegetable mixture. Drain and discard chicken liquid from vegetable mixture. Stir in sauce. Return dumplings to saucepan. Heat through.

Ladle chicken mixture into 4 individual serving bowls. Top each serving with 2 dumplings. If you like, garnish with carrot chips and thyme sprigs or snipped chives. Makes 4 servings.