Let’s talk about that real comfort food: Cornbread Chicken and Dumplings.
I have been on the verge of almost getting sick for almost a month. And if you’re like me and feeling a bit under the weather or are simply FREEZING cold all the time, then look no further. All you need in your life is a big bowl of this Cornbread Chicken and Dumplings.
What is Chicken and Dumplings
The great folks at Wikipedia tell me that chicken and dumplings is a dish that consists of chicken cooked in water, resulting in chicken broth. And then brought to a boil with drop biscuits/dumplings added and then cooked.
This recipe is pretty Southern but I can think of a few other iterations from other parts of the world.
It’s a super comforting dish. The dumplings are cooked throughout with the broth feeling generous and warming.
How to Make Chicken and Dumplings
This recipe couldn’t be simpler because it relies on a store-bought chicken broth. Of course, if you have some homemade chicken broth in the fridge, by all means use it!
Here’s Are the Steps:
РSaut̩ 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.
– 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.
If you make this, for sure let me know on Instagram!
Cornbread Chicken and Dumplings
Ingredients
Filling:
- 2 chicken bone-in chicken thighs
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground pepper
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 ribs celery diced
- 2 small carrots finely chopped
- 3 sprigs thyme leaves removed
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 10 turns of freshly-cracked pepper
- 4 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
- 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.
- In a dutch oven or medium pot, set over medium heat, add the butter. When melted, add the celery, carrot and thyme. 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
Equipment
Nutrition
Adapted from The Year of Cozy
I have made these several times now. The first time I stuck to the recipe. They were great! Since then I have experimented some more herbs and spices. Yesterday, I substituted sweet potato butter for most of the buttermilk. They were amazing!
wow that sounds delicious!
Looks delicious….can you tell me how many cups of leftover chopped chicken would go into this soup. I have some frozen that I’d love to use.
Hi…sounds delicious. Can you tell me how many cups of chicken goes in the soup. I have leftover Costco chicken that’s already chopped up and frozen.
you’d probably need about 1 1/2 cups. 🙂
So good and so easy to make, great use of thanksgiving turkey leftovers! I did add in a few things personally, like 1/2 cup diced onion, 2 minced garlic cloves and 1 spring of chopped rosemary. I used Oat milk in replace of the buttermilk for the dumplings, and just added to the dry mixture as I went to get the right consistency, you don’t want them to be runny or they won’t work properly. Thanks for the great recipe!
sounds great!
I made this for dinner tonight and it is SO DANG DELICIOUS. Thanks for a great recipe – it’s definitely one we’ll make again 🙂
Hi Adrianna, I just made this. FANTASTIC!! Super flavorful and easy. Thank you so much for the recipe.
love that it worked out! 🙂
I make this at least twice a month all through the winter months- it’s always delicious and so comforting!
This is wonderful to hear! Thank you. xo
Made this last night! My favorite chicken soup I’ve ever had. I also simmered the soup with the tops of the unused celery stalks and a quarter of an onion. Yum. And I was able to buy already picked chicken from a rotisserie chicken at the grocery store (I can’t eat a whole chicken by myself, I don’t eat a lot of it).
Seriously so cozy and healing. It’s already in the 30s in Illinois.
Thanks Adrianna!
This looks SO good – our temperatures are going to drop and this is exactly what’s needed!
This looks delicious!!! Only thing is that my baby boy has a milk protein allergy – do you have a recommendation for what to sub for buttermilk? Would oat or almond milk work?
hi! i haven’t tried it with almond milk. but it might work! since almond milk is thinner, i’d recommend adding a bit less, like a tablespoon or two less of almond milk than you would buttermilk. if it works, please let us know! 🙂
Hoping to make this tonight. What’s the best size Dutch oven for this recipe??
A 3-quart would work just fine!
I made the Chicken + Dumplings over the weekend for some friends from the South and they LOVED it! I oven-poached some chicken breasts in place of chicken thighs, but otherwise followed the recipe to the letter. Amazing!
I am making this right now but my dumpling batter is also very runny….not sure if that is how it’s supposed to be?
Hmm…this is so strange because a lot of people have made this and they didn’t have this problem! The only thing I can think of is that maybe your cornmeal is a different grind than mine.
A few questions:
You’re using baking powder, right? It’s not expired, right?
You’re using buttermilk, right?
Some solutions:
Add 1/4 cup more flour. This dumpling dough should be fluffy because of the baking powder.
Yes I am using baking powder and it’s not expired. My cornmeal is not super fine and more coarse. Also, I didn’t have buttermilk, so I used milk with a tablespoon or two of lemon juice, so that might be another reason. I did end up putting more flour in for the dumpling batter and it turned out good that way. Thank you!
Ahhh the milk trick is the issue!
Milk is SO much thinner than buttermilk (especially if you’re using 2%). That trick will never thicken it to the same consistency but I’m so glad you added the extra flour and it ended up working out! xoxo
Mine was runny too. I used real buttermilk from making my own butter. It’s much thinner than store bought butter milk. I just added , a half recipe of dry ingredients and mine were perfect and delicious.
Hello! Thank you for the recipe. I made it tonight for dinner tonight…the flavor was great! But I do wonder if I did something wrong with the dumplings. I followed the recipe exactly but the dough was very runny. I let it sit for a couple of minutes and then when I dropped it in to the veggies and broth, it broke apart. We ended up with something closer to a pot pie filling with a few smaller dumplings that was very tasty! But I would love to get fluffier and more in-tact dumplings. Has this ever happened to you?
Thanks!
Hmmm…this hasn’t happened to me but it happened to the commenter below but didn’t happen to a few other people who made it so it makes me question what is up. Did you use a super fine cornmeal by chance? Would love to get to the bottom of it. Glad it still tasted good! xo
Cornbread in chicken and dumplings just changed my entire life. This is incredible, Adrianna! The kind of comfort food that I could totally use this week, especially. Thank you so much for this and for such kind words. I hope that pesky neck pain goes away!