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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.
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!
My first time trying a Cozy recipe — so so so good! Will be making again throughout the Fall and Winter
oh yayy! i’m so glad you loved it! xoxo
Now that’s my kinda chicken and dumpling. Wasn’t a big fan of chicken and dumpling. But as a country girl chicken n cornbread me n my five girls favorite food group why not group it together. Thanks making it Saturday cozy dinner night.#hint hint and with the over thanksgiving turkey.
This looks SO GOOD oh my goodness. Any suggestions on what I could potentially add instead of chicken? Maybe white beans of some kind? My sisters are vegetarian.
Thank you!!
I saw Yeezy last night! Granted he cancelled the show in the middle on “Only One” it was amazing. I have been wanting to see him live for years and years!
Also, I want to try this recipe but the chicken part freaks me out, I have an aversion to meat still on the bone.
OMG I saw that he stopped the show and I would’ve been so mad!!!
Noooo don’t be freaked out. Chicken tastes a million times better on the bone because it doesn’t dry out. You can also buy an already cooked store-bought rotisserie chicken at the store!
I just wanna say that this is such a WONDERFULLY TOUCHING & HEART-WARMING creative idea & gesture ! This is going to make the parents SO HAPPY ! It’s stuff like this that encourages me to continue blogging (even though I often feel like saying, “yeah, that’s enough, time to stop …”). Yet I soldier on. And yeah, oh how I wish-wish-wished I could have been part of this magical sharing moment too !!! Great job & take care … georgie @ www.icookstuff.com 🙂
Thanks, Georgie. I find that the blogging community is a really warm and supportive place! Everyone is so rad.