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This recipe for Chicken and Dumplings is cozy, comforting and delicious. It’s made in one pot for simplicity. Use a store-bought rotisserie chicken to make this the easiest weeknight meal. Serve this with my Fall Harvest Salad and Cranberry Margaritas for the perfect cozy meal.
If you know me, you know that during the cozier seasons, I THRIVE. This is my moment. I live for brisk weather and the ability to roast a chicken (like my pollo a la brasa) and bake a homemade apple pie on a Sunday.
This pot of chicken and dumplings is as cozy as it gets. I love using a store-bought rotisserie chicken for this recipe because it makes it come together in under 30 minutes. The dumplings are SUPER fluffy and bouncy. Let’s get into it!
Ingredients for Chicken and Dumplings
- Onion, carrot and celery – This is an iconic trifecta for soup.
- Fresh thyme – When we think of that quintessential chicken soup flavor, it’s from thyme! It’s so necessary for delicious chicken soup.
- Flour – You can surely skip this if you like. It is added to a the butter to make a mini-roux. This will help thicken the soup; not too much but just enough.
- Shredded chicken – You can use roasted chicken or a store-bought rotisserie chicken.
- Good quality chicken broth – I personally love using my Homemade Chicken Stock (which is almost like a bone broth) but feel free to use store-bought too.
For the full list of ingredients, please refer to the recipe index card below!
How to Make Chicken and Dumplings
- Sauté the onion, carrot and celery together.
- Add the butter and when it’s melted, add the flour.
- The flour will dissolve into the melted butter, creating a bit of a roux. This will help thicken the soup broth.
- Next, add the thyme. Thyme is a key ingredient in making any chicken soup absolutely delicious. It’s a MUST!
- After the thyme comes the chicken broth. Again, store-bought or homemade! Whichever one you have–both will work.
- Bring it to a simmer and cook for about 15 minutes, you really want the flavors married. Add in the shredded chicken.
- While that’s going, mix up the dumpling batter. It’s super simple: buttermilk, a bit of leavening, salt, flour and corn meal. It tastes SO much like cornbread, it’s amazing.
- In the boiling points of the broth, you drop in the batter using a cookie scoop. Dropping it in the boiling point, creates a super fluffy cornbread.
- Cover the pot and that’s it! The dumplings will cook in about 5 minutes.
Tips and Tricks
Make the fluffiest dumplings. The fluffiest dumplings are made when you drop the scoop of dumpling batter into the bubbling points. This helps the dumplings rise and become super fluffy.
Homemade chicken stock. Use my homemade chicken stock for the best results OR use a good quality store-bought variety.
Thicker soup. If you want a thicker soup, feel free to add two tablespoons of flour vs. one tablespoon of flour.
Re-heat this soup. This soup re-heats very well. I find simmering it in a pan over low heat works best.
Recipe FAQs
Ah, it’s all in the dough – don’t overwork it, and you’ll have dumplings soft as a cloud.
More Cozy Recipes
If you tried this Chicken and Dumplings or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below. Thanks for visiting!
Chicken and Dumplings
Video
Equipment
- 1 (5-quart) Dutch oven or pot
Ingredients
Filling:
- 2 chicken bone-in chicken thighs
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground pepper
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1/4 yellow onion, diced
- 2 ribs celery, diced
- 2 small carrots, finely chopped
- 3 sprigs thyme, leaves removed
- Kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- Freshly cracked black pepper
- 8 cups low-sodium chicken stock
Dumplings:
- 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup cornmeal
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup + 1 tablespoon shaken buttermilk
Instructions
To Make the Chicken:
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with foil or parchment. Place the chicken side-by-side and drizzle with about a tablespoon of olive oil. Sprinkle both thighs with a few pinches of salt and pepper. Transfer to the oven to roast for 20 to 25 minutes, until the tops are golden brown and the juices run clear.
- Remove from the oven and set aside to cool. When they reach closer to room temperature, use two forks to shred the chicken. Discard any scraps and set the shredded chicken aside.
To Make the Chicken and Dumplings:
- In a dutch oven or medium pot, set over medium heat, add the butter. When melted, add the onion, celery, carrot, thyme, along wiht a few pinches of salt. Cook until slightly softened, about 2 to 3 minutes. Mix in the flour and cook for about 1 minute. Next pour in the chicken stock. Bring the mixture to a simmer and then immediately bring it down to medium low; cook for about 6 to 7 minutes, until slightly thickened.
- While the soup is cooking, let’s make the dumplings! In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt. Pour in the buttermilk and mix until combined.
- Give the soup a taste and adjust the salt to your liking and add a bunch of black pepper. I added about 10 turns.
- Bring the soup up to a gentle simmer and drop tablespoons or ice cream scoops of dumpling dough right onto the boiling point (this will make super fluffy dumplings) and then repeat with the remaining dumpling dough. Cover and cook for about 5 minutes until the dumplings are fluffy and cooked through. Move a dumpling aside and slide the reserved shredded chicken into the pot. Divide amongst bowls and serve!
Notes
- The fluffiest dumplings are made when you drop the scoop of dumpling batter into the bubbling points. This helps the dumplings rise and become super fluffy.
- Use a store-bought rotisserie chicken if you like!
- You can use store-bought or homemade chicken broth for this recipe.
- If you want a thicker soup, feel free to add two tablespoons of flour vs. one tablespoon of flour.
- This soup re-heats very well. I find simmering it in a pan over low heat works best.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Sorry to hear you’re having neck pain! I recently got a set of the Casper pillows for my bed and absolutely love them. They’re pretty firm/dense (not downy/fluffy) which I wouldn’t have thought I’d like, but they’re the comfiest pillows I’ve ever used. Hopefully they help fix your neck problems.
love that lead photo of you!! cozy sweater vibes. i’m digging this chicken n dumplings riff! thanks for participating bb!
xoxo
oh, also i used to have neck problems then mike got me a baby pillow which is kinda weird sounding but basically is a regular pillow but smaller and i think it helped cause regular pillows were too big for me?! anyway, they’re uber cheap on amazon (toddler pillows) so why not give it a try?
feel better!!!!!
Yooooo you made this for me right? I mean clearly you know what makes my southern heart get lit! Also, fast food and weed should be a car fresher smell you clip to air vents in your car. Just Sayin.
I MADE IT 4 UUU! I wish it was a car freshener bc it would make me cry with happiness haha
Shittt that looks good. Your blue Jetta sounded kinda like my Red Corrolla. Hehe. This is my cold killer: fresh juice of one lemon, fresh ginger juice (I just squeeze pieces of peeled ginger through my garlic press) made into a tea with a little bit of cayenne pepper. My friend christened it the “morning Caesar.” HEALTH!! XO
Haha. That combo sounds so good. That’s kinda what my wellness shots are it’s like a ton of ginger and cayenne and lemon juice and coconut water. I need more tho. I think a warm tea version would be dope! GONNA TRY IT
I love your chicken and dumplings! I was just saying the other day that I want to make it again. If you’re getting sick, I always say to get some SLEEP and hoard all of that vitamin C. But seriously, sleep is one of the best things. Which is so annoying because it’s time consuming. I hope you feel better!
SO time consuming haha!
I was curious about the casper pillow as well! haha #notboring – maybe cause i’m old now this is what I talk about haha 😛
I’ve read a ton of reviews and a lot of the reviews say it hurt peoples’ necks because it’s bulky. UGH!
This looks amazing! Saving it for the next time we get a rainy day in LA
YES! it’s hot today (WHY!) so definitely when it cools down. 🙂
The pillow is Dr. Corma, not Forma. Sorry, that darn spell check taking liberties.
haha ok cool because I did find a pillow called dr. forma and it’s $300!!!
I was just so hungry for chicken and dumplings! I love the thought of cornbread dumplings so yummy.
I wanted to tell you about a pillow called Dr. Forma pillow. Just Google it or whatever and you can adjust the filling, plus you throw it in the washer and dryer and you’re good to go.
ooooo…gonna do some research on it. thank you!
Looks so perfectly cozy indeed. Feel better!
thanks, chrissy!