Homemade Dumplings
One of the things we all love to have for dinner is a big pot of chicken stew with old-fashioned homemade dumplings. Drop them in a pot of bubbling soup and about 10 minutes later you’ll have big fluffy homemade dumplings. Trust me on this one, they’re a family favorite, everyone loves this homemade dumpling recipe.
This is an easy recipe for truly homemade dumplings, big, soft and fluffy like grandma used to make, pure comfort food. Mixed up quickly from just a few humble pantry ingredients these drop dumplings come out perfect just about every single time. That is: fluffy and steamed to perfection!
What kind of dumplings are these?
As far as I’m concerned there are two types of dumplings with MANY variations. There’s the kind of dumplings made flat from dumpling wrappers and filled with various dumpling fillings. Sometimes they’re Chinese, or Japanese, but there are even Eastern European versions too. These are some of my favorite foods and we all love them.
And then there’s the other type of dumplings, drop dumplings or flat dumplings. Drop dumplings are big soft fluffy dumplings made from dough and dropped in soup. I like to make drop dumplings because they’re easy. For flat dumplings, you may need to use a rolling pin to roll them out or use a pizza cutter or pastry cutter to cut dough. Either way, the dumplings are dropped into the fresh soup over medium heat or medium-high heat, covered, and left it do its magic. The results are a creamy soup full of fluffy dumplings.
There’s a third variety that I do not buy into and that is the buy canned biscuit dough and drop them into the simmering broth. I don’t think biscuits make great dumplings but it may be the easiest way to make dumplings.
Dumplings From Scratch
If you’re looking for a chicken and dumplings recipe may I direct you to my Old-Fashioned Chicken and Dumplings? It’s a full soup recipe with everything you need to make a big happy pot of soup. OR if you’ve got leftover turkey here’s a recipe for Turkey and Dumplings, you won’t be disappointed!
You can even use canned broth and shredded rotisserie chicken to make EASY homemade chicken and dumplings. But if you’re here for JUST an Old Fashioned Dumpling Recipe and you’ve got the soup part under control well then you’re in the RIGHT PLACE!
But if you’re here for JUST an Old Fashioned Dumpling Recipe and you’ve got the soup part under control well then you’re in the RIGHT PLACE!
Now it may seem that these dumplings don’t have a lot of seasonings and you’re right but remember they’re steamed in a super flavorful soup so they’re soaking up all that flavor. And they do need a sprinkle of salt and pepper on top of them before you steam them, a sprinkle of fresh parsley is always nice too. The flavor can’t be beat!
What do I need to Make Dumplings for Soup?
- a large pot of soup that needs dumplings (most important!) if you need a soup try the recipes I mentioned above
- All-purpose flour
- baking powder
- milk
- oil OR melted butter
- salt, pepper, and optional fresh parsley
- large or medium bowl
- fork
Soft Fluffy Dumplings From Scratch
You can make soft fluffy dumplings from scratch just follow these EASY tips for the BEST homemade dumplings!
- Lighten your flour so you don’t add too much flour to your homemade dumplings, that will kill them, to lighten flour simply run a spoon through it several times
- stir together the dry ingredients in a large bowl and set aside
- mix the liquid ingredients
- pour the liquid into the dry ingredients and stir with a fork
- stir ONLY until the dumpling dough comes together and then stop
- make sure your soup is JUST on the verge of boiling and reduce the heat slightly
- drop by fork fulls into the soup, salt and pepper them, cover and leave covered while cooking, stay around in case the pot starts to boil over and remove it from the heat slightly to keep it from boiling over
- once the cooking time has passed open the lid and use a fork to open a dumpling if it’s cooked enough the outside will be soupy and tender while the inside is steamed soft and fluffy
What Can Go Wrong?
What can go wrong with homemade dumplings?? Oh, so many things!
If you’ve made dumplings before and had a few problems I CAN HELP. Because I’ve MADE a lot of bad dumplings in my life. If your dumplings were hard, tough, fell apart in the soup, or were just plain bad read on!
- if your dumplings were hard or tough then you over-mixed them, you should mix the dough until it JUST comes together
- NEVER roll the dumplings with your hands it compacts the dough and makes for hard dumplings
- if your dumplings come apart in soup it was at a hard boil when the dough was dropped in
- if your dumplings fell apart in the soup then the soup wasn’t just almost boiling when you dropped them in, it must be on the verge of boiling, then the heat must be reduced a bit so you can cover them with a lid to cook them WITHOUT them boiling over(this sounds tricky but it’s not!)
- Another reason dumplings fall apart is that they were slightly undermixed when you added them to the soup, stir until combined and the mixture forms a ball in the middle of the bowl
Homemade Dumplings
Ingredients
- 2 cups flour
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 3/4 cup of milk
- 1/3 cup of vegetable oil
- pinch of salt
- pinch salt sprinkle on top
- pinch pepper sprinkle on top
Instructions
- when your soup is fully cooked and just about ready to serve it should be bubbling lightly, reduce the heat
- mix the dry ingredients together with a fork
- set aside
- mix the wet ingredients together
- pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients
- stir with a fork just until the mixture comes together in a ball
- drop by fork fulls into the soup making 12 dumplings
- salt and pepper the tops of the dumplings
- cover the soup and cook WITHOUT taking off the lid for 10 minutes
- when the time is up take the lid off check a dumpling to see how it looks, it should be soft and soupy on the outside and soft, fluffy and perfectly steamed on the inside
- if it's not cooked through or seems doughy cover the pot and cook another 2 minutes
- check them again once they're cooked through they are ready to serve in the soup
I am out of AP flour, but have bread flour. Can I substitute and should I omit the baking powder? Thank you
You could try the bread flour. I would not eliminate the rising agent though, they need that to get fluffy.
OM Goodness! Not only are the best homemade dumplings I’VE ever made but they are the BEST I’ve eaten since my grandmother’s
Thank you SO MUCH! I love that for both of us!!
Can I use butter instead of oilss
I made too much soup and dumplings stuck to the lid. lol But they taste good.
Whoops!
I’ve been making dumplings since 1966. These are actually the very best and (thank you) the easiest! I added my usual spices and anything buttery works for me! I’ll be watching your other recipes!
Yeah I am glad to hear you like them!
Really easy recipe mine were fluffy by following your instructions. The flour off the dumplings make the soup so creamy.I will definitely make again thank you.
Hi Laura,
I didn’t rate because I haven’t tried yet.
Never tried puffy dumplings in soup but it looks heavenly.
Questions: If you have leftovers, do you separate the dumplings from soup then chill? How do you reheat?
Freezer Friendly? With or without dumplings? Thanks for your expertise!
Just tasted like flour. Really kind of gross.
Hmmm I wonder what went wrong?
I think my heat was too low and when I stirred a lot became undone 🙁 I’ve made these before with great success so I know it’s my own error
We love them regardless
Thanks
I am sorry that happened! It happens to me too sometimes.
Made them tonight! Used butter not oil and added 1 tsp sugar. They were so good! Butter gives more flavor.
Literally the only dumpling recipe I’ve tried that is spot on! Thank you!
Turned out perfect. Then I left them sitting while I cut up some vegetables. I didn’t have any heat on while they were sitting. When I went back to pour in bowl the dumplings had turned hard as a rock. What happened?
I don’t know! I often make them for dinner, and we eat leftovers the next day, they never get hard. But I warm them up to nice and hot before we eat them.
Did you reheat them?
They are the same recipe I have from my Mom. But we always used butter and a bit of parsley. Wonderful!
I used buttermilk instead of regular milk! So good!