Easy Chicken and Dumplings Recipe
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This IS the EASY Chicken and Dumplings Recipe YOU NEED. And when you make it, your family will CHEER! Every time. You’ll be amazed that you can easily make chicken and dumplings from scratch!
Perfectly tender chicken, soft fluffy homemade dumplings, and semi-homemade broth come together to make this chicken and dumplings recipe your GO-TO for comfort food!
And talk about EASY, this recipe is exactly THAT. While it’s not a quick fix, it takes around 1 1/2 to 2 hours, it’s easy to toss in the pot, and let it cook while filling the house with its deliciously comforting soup smells.
Homemade Dumplings and Chicken
I know it’s SUPER popular right now to make dumplings out of cut-up canned biscuits. You don’t have to do that to have dumplings! And you’re not using a mix either, they are simple.
Make Homemade Dumplings
Fluffy homemade dumplings are SO EASY you can whip them up in no time at all. All you need are just a few simple pantry staples, and milk and you’re minutes away from easy homemade dumplings just like grandma used to make.
The absolute trick to fluffy dumplings is not to overmix the dough, you must stop stirring the dough as SOON as it comes together in the bowl. THEN drop by spoonfuls in the hot simmering broth. Don’t roll the dough into balls or compress it at all. That’s the BIG secret to fluffy dumplings.
Why did my dumplings fall apart in the broth?
If your dumplings fell apart in the broth then the soup wasn’t hot enough when you put them in. It MUST be simmering hot to keep the dumplings intact.
The steam in the pot when you put the lid on makes everything plump up and stick together so a GOOD hot soup is needed. If they break up it will still taste fine and be a very thick soup with mini dumpling chunks in it. We’ve had that a few times, it’s still a good pot of soup.
I Love This Recipe
Because it makes me feel like I’m about 7 years old and my mom is making dinner for me. But I also like it because I’m the mom now and I’m making something warm and filling and full of sense memories for my own boys. AND myself.
Ok, and it’s so easy to make.
Let’s make it SUPER EASY Chicken soup and Dumplings
You can make this recipe even easier with a few time-saving steps.
- first of all, start with pre-cooked chicken, or use the white meat from a rotisserie chicken, I don’t think canned chicken is a good choice for a chicken soup
- or quick cook your chicken in the instant pot, shred it, put it in the dutch oven with broth, water, and herbs, bring it to a boil, reduce the heat and add the dumplings
- use TWO quarts of chicken broth and forgo making a semi-homemade broth
- follow the dumpling recipe carefully to make the BEST fluffy dumplings
Other Old Fashioned Recipes You Might Want to Make
- Old Fashioned Homemade Beef and Noodles
- Old Fashioned Noodles
- Turkey and Dumplings using Thanksgiving Leftovers!!
- Just need to make Dumplings? Grab my Homemade Dumplings Recipe and drop them in YOUR favorite soup!!
A Note About the Seasonings in this Soup
Using
I’ve ALWAYS used Italian Seasonings for my Chicken Soups, and to be honest my beans soups too. The sage, rosemary, oregano, and a few other herbs work perfectly in MANY soup recipes. It’s so much easier to reach for one bottle than a variety of bottles.
You can ALSO use a poultry seasoning mix, it’s about the same thing. But it doesn’t have any oregano in it FYI!
And if you don’t have Italian Seasoning on hand then use sage, thyme, oregano, rosemary, or ANY tasty combination of those herbs.
AND ALWAYS add your favorite herbs and spices to soup, if you like it, add it!! And taste and correct for YOUR preference!
Chicken and Dumplings
Ingredients
- 1- quart chicken broth or use homemade broth
- 1- quart water
- 1 TBSP Poultry Seasoning OR Italian Seasoning or a combo of Dried Herbs- SEE NOTES
- 1 Bay Leaf
- 1-1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast
- salt and pepper to taste add last after cooking
Homemade Dumplings
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 3/4 cups of milk
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- pour the broth and water in a 7 quart or larger dutch oven set over medium heat
- add the Italian Seasonings, the bay leaf, and the chicken breasts
- cook covered over medium heat until cooked through and tender, about 60-90 minutes
- remove the meat from the pan, set aside to cool
- skim any foam from the broth, if you lose seasonings you can add fresh
- when the meat is cool to touch roughly shred it, you don't want a lot of little shreddy pieces but bigger pieces work great
- add the chicken back to the pot, bring the soup to a simmer
- taste for salt and pepper and add as needed
- make the dumplings by mixing the flour with the baking powder in a mixing bowl
- then mix the milk and oil together
- pour over the flour mixture and use a fork to lightly mix it in
- once the dough comes together stop mixing,over-mixing causes hard lumpy dumplings, you want soft and pillowy
- use the fork to pull off a golf ball size piece of dough, drop it in the simmering soup
- work quickly to make 12 dumplings, dropping them in the soup next to each other, not on top of each other
- once they're in the soup sprinkle with the salt and pepper
- reduce heat to just keep it simmering cover the pan
- leave covered and cook for 10-12 minutes in the bubbling soup
- when it's been 10 minutes pull a dumpling out, and use a fork to pull it open, it should be cooked in the middle but soft and soupy on the outside
- if they need more time cook two more minutes
- serve hot
Notes
You can ALSO use a poultry seasoning mix, it’s about the same thing. But it doesn’t have any oregano in it FYI!
AND ALWAYS add your favorite herbs and spices to soup, if you like it add it!! And taste and correct for YOUR preference!
Nutrition
- Oven Roasted Turkey with Stuffing
- Quick and Easy Cowboy Stew
- Biscuit Topped Beef Pot Pie
- Garlic Herb Prime Rib Roast
- Beer Cheese Soup
- Slow Cooker Pot Roast
- Creamy Mushroom Wild Rice Soup
- Hearty Turkey Pumpkin Chili
Hello, can I use butter instead of oil to give the dumplings a buttery taste?
Try it!
So don’t use all purpose flour? I’m assuming not since the recipe calls for baking powder.
Yes all-purpose flour
The recipe calls for all purpose flour AND baking powder.
Yes, it does.
Would it work in a crockpot??
Possibly? But you need to get the soup really boiling before you add the dumplings. This is ONLY for crockpots or slowcookers, once you take the lid off and add dumplings the temperature comes down rapidly. Once you put the dumplings in and return the lid the temp will be down to where you really want to cook dumplings which is simmering.
I love this recipe. I have made twice. First time like recipe. Today boiled bone in chicken with celery and onions.What a difference in flavor. So, personal preference. But overall closest thing to my gma and mom’s. Thumbs-up
Oh my gosh….I have been looking for dumplings like this ..I do not like those dense flat heavy things…this is amazing…thanks so much for sharing this incredible dish.
It is delicious!! The dumplings remind me of my Grandmas. Thank you for a beautiful memory. Will be making this a lot!!
My boyfriend grew up in Louisiana and is always saying he wants his dad’s chicken and dumplings. I thought i’d try this one since it looked similar and it’s a hit! He loves it! Thank you so much for this
you need to change simmering to boiling.. i didn’t know until i started reading comments, added my dumplings to SIMMERING soup, and now it’s probably ruined.
Absolutely NOT. You need to put dumplings in simmering broth not boiling. Boiling will make them break apart.
Could you use frozen chicken breast?
Absolutely!
oh laura? u got rid of my comment? yk thats a wee bit petty… you look over grown deleted a comment to help u know some seasoning i was just tryna help guess haters gonna hate. U CAN NEVER BE ÚNEKWA!