Chicken and Dumplings – Fluffy dumplings are cooked in a pot of homemade creamy chicken soup, making for the ultimate comfort food.
These Chicken and Dumplings have been a family favorite recipe every since last winter. It’s comforting, easy, and sooooo yummy. The hearty, rich soup is the perfect accompaniment to the fluff, buttery dumplings. You just can’t go wrong with this recipe.
This year, I wanted to finally share this recipe with you. I hope your family loves it as much as mine!
Making the soup
The base of chicken and dumplings is a creamy chicken soup. We start by cooking the chicken breasts in the bottom of the Dutch oven. This starts the cooking process for the chicken, while also adding chicken flavor to the base of the soup. The chicken is only seared on the outside – the center might not be done. That’s okay! We’re adding the chicken back to the soup later to finish cooking.
Next, the veggies are cooked to soften them up a little with butter, about 5 minutes. Spices are added next to build the flavor, followed by a little flour to create the roux. The roux is cooked for a couple minutes to take away that floury taste.
The chicken broth is then added little by little. This keeps the roux intact. If you add it too fast, the roux will break and the soup won’t be super creamy. After the broth, the half and half is added just as slowly. Once it comes to a simmer, frozen peas and cubes of the cooked chicken are added to the soup.
Making the dumplings
Dumplings are similar to biscuits in texture However, their cooking process is very different. The dumplings are cooked in liquid or steamed. In the case of this recipe, they are cooked in a soup, with a lid placed on top of the pot to help them steam.
To keep the texture of the dumplings light, cake flour is used instead of all-purpose flour. Baking powder, baking soda, salt, garlic powder, and sugar are added to the flour and whisked together. The milk and butter are warmed together until the butter is melted. It then gets added to the dry ingredients with the sour cream and then stirred together just until combined.
The dough is scooped and dropped into the soup. The pot is covered to help produce steam to cook the dumplings. Once the dumplings are set and cooked through, they’re ready to serve!
Tips & Tricks
- Add the liquids slowly. To ensure the soup stays thick and creamy, make sure you add liquids to the roux slowly.
- Don’t over mix the dumplings. The dumplings will get tough if you over mix the dough. Mix until JUST combined.
- Let the dumplings steam. The dumplings will cook in the steam of the soup. Make sure to cover the dumplings without removing the lid. This will ensure the steam stays trapped inside until they are done.
- Make the dumplings any size. The picture shows large dumplings but you can also make them a little smaller. I have done both. It just depends on the crowd. For the kids, I make the dumplings smaller.
Chicken and Dumplings
Ingredients
For the soup:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 pounds chicken breast
- salt and pepper to taste
- 5 tablespoons butter
- ½ large white onion diced
- 2 medium carrots diced
- 2 stalks celery diced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- ½ teaspoon hot sauce
- ⅓ cup flour
- 4½ cups chicken broth
- 1½ cups half and half
- ¾ cup frozen peas
Seasonings for the soup:
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon dried basil
- ½ teaspoon dried parsley
- ½ teaspoon dried rosemary
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- ½ teaspoon mustard powder
- ¼ teaspoon ground sage
- ¼ teaspoon ground pepper
For the dumplings:
- 2 cups cake flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
- ¾ cup sour cream
- ¼ cup milk
- 4 tablespoons butter unsalted, melted
Instructions
- Set a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add olive oil. Pat dry chicken breasts and sprinkle with salt and pepper on both sides. Once oil is hot, add chicken and cook for about 4 minutes per side. The chicken may still be pink in the center – that's okay. They will finished cooking later. Let cool for 10 minutes and then dice into 1-inch chunks.
- Reduce heat to medium and add butter. Once melted, add diced onion, carrots, and celery. Cook for about 5 minutes. Add seasonings, minced garlic, Worcestershire sauce, and hot sauce. Cook for 1 more minute. Add flour and stir together to make the roux. Cook for 2 minutes.
- Add chicken broth about ¼ cup at a time to roux to create a thick base. But make sure to pause, stir, and bring mixture back to a simmer before each addition. Do the same with the half and half. This ensures the mixture stays thick. Add in the frozen peas and chicken to the mixture and stir together.
- Make the dumplings by first mixing the dumpling dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Heat milk and butter together until the butter melts. Add to the dry igredients, along with the sour cream. Mix together with a wooden spoon just until combined. The mixture should be thick and hard to stir once it's ready.
- Using a cookie scoop or ice cream scoop, scoop the dough and drop gently into the soup. Repeat until all the dough is gone, making sure the dumplings are about 2 inches apart. Spoon a little soup over each dumpling. Reduce temperature to medium-low and cover for 15 minutes. Do not remove lid at any time to prevent steam from escaping. This steam will cook the dumplings.
- Use a toothpick to check the doneness of the dumplings. If set, turn off the heat and let cool for about 10 minutes. This will ensure the soup is cool enough to eat. Serve in a bowl by scooping up a dumpling or two and covering with the soup. Enjoy!
Notes
Pin for later:
More recipes you’ll love:
Biscuits and Gravy Casserole
Classic Pot Roast
Baked Chicken Spaghetti
Fantastic! Super flavorful! The recipe was a hit a home! Next time I’ll make a batch to have yummy leftovers!
Classic comfort food, very delicious. Your biscuit and gravy casserole also caught my eye while I was going through this recipe.
I love chicken and dumplings, perfect cold weather meal
Chicken and dumplings have always been such a favorite in my house. The dumplings came out so fluffy and the creaminess of the soup are to die for! This is such a great recipe!
What a delicious and flavorful homemade meal! Both me kids enjoyed this too, which is a huge win!
Oh wow! I’d love to try this out soon! Looks really delicious and easy to prepare!
This is one of my favorite winter comfort foods. The tips for the dumplings helped a lot. Thank you
This recipe screams ‘Fall comfort food”. It’s a recipe sure to be gobbled up by my whole family!
I loved making this dinner from scratch and everyone loved it. Great recipe!
Oh YUM! This just looks like homemade comfort in a bowl my friend! I love the biscuit style topper for dumplings!
It sounds delicious! I’ve never tried anything similar but it sounds divine