It’s time to stock my freezer with some portions of homemade chicken soup for the cold winter ahead. I’ve made a classic chicken noodle soup in the past, but I wanted to try a little something different this time.
The word “dumpling” has a million different culinary definitions. Okay, that might be a slight exaggeration, but just about every culture has its own version of dumplings and they’re all different. The dumplings that I grew up with were fluffy biscuit-like lumps that floated on top of soup like little delicious clouds. I wanted some of those dumplings. This is not a recipe for the thick, noodle-like dumpling similar to what you’d get at Cracker Barrel.
I started with a basic chicken noodle soup recipe, but made it in the slow cooker instead of on the stove top and with less broth so that it would have more of a stew-like consistency. Instead of adding noodles at the end, I simply mixed up a batch of drop biscuits and dropped them by the spoonful on top of the “soup.” The heat from the soup steams the biscuits, turning them into fluffy, broth soaked dumplings. The part of the dumpling touching the soup does get soggy, but IMHO that’s half of the beauty. If you’re not into that sort of texture, you can simply substitute your favorite noodle and turn it into a slow cooker chicken noodle soup!
I got about six servings out of this – approx. 1 cup of the soup part and 1-2 massive dumplings. It was very filling!
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Slow Cooker Chicken & Dumplings
Servings 6Ingredients
Soup
- 2 cloves garlic ($0.16)
- 1 yellow onion ($0.57)
- 3 ribs celery ($0.80)
- 1/2 lb. carrots (about 4) ($0.55)
- 1 large chicken breast* (about 3/4 lb.) ($1.49)
- 1 whole bay leaf ($0.15)
- 1 tsp dried basil ($0.10)
- 1 tsp dried thyme ($0.10)
- freshly cracked black pepper ($0.05)
- 4 cups water ($0.00)
- 1 tsp salt (or to taste) ($0.05)
Dumplings
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour ($0.21)
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder ($0.15)
- 1/2 tsp salt ($0.02)
- 1/2 Tbsp dried parsley ($0.15)
- 6 Tbsp cold butter ($0.90)
- 3/4 tsp sugar ($0.01)
- 2/3 cup milk ($0.41)
Instructions
- Mince the garlic, dice the onion, and slice the carrots and celery into small pieces. Add the garlic, onion, carrot, celery, bay leaf, basil, thyme, chicken breast, water, and some freshly cracked pepper to a slow cooker. Stir to combine and then cook on high for four hours or low for eight hours.
- After cooking for four hours on high or eight hours on low, remove the chicken from the broth and place it on a cutting board (if you cooked on low heat, turn it to high now). Use two forks to shred the chicken. Return the chicken to the pot and stir in 1 tsp of salt to the soup. Keep the slow cooker covered as much as possible during this process to retain heat and maintain the temperature.
- Allow the soup to continue to cook on high while you mix the dumpling batter. In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder, salt, parsley, and sugar. Mix well. Add butter in small chunks and cut it in or work it in with your hands until the mixture resembles damp sand. Add the milk and stir until a very soft paste-like mixture forms.
- Remove the lid from the slow cooker and drop the dumpling batter into the soup by the heaping spoonful. Return the lid to the slow cooker and allow the dumplings to steam for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes they should have fluffed and expanded from the heat. Although they may look moist on the outside, they will be light and fluffy on the inside. Serve hot.
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Notes
Nutrition
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Step by Step Photos
I like to add a lot of vegetables to my chicken & dumplings to round out the meal. I used half of a sleeve of celery, half of a one pound bag of carrots, a medium onion, and a couple cloves of garlic. Mince the garlic, dice the onion, and cut the celery and carrots into slices.
Most of the soups that I make start with this same mix of carrots, celery, and onion. So, instead of letting the second half of the celery and carrots go to waste, I just chop them up, put them in a freezer bag, and then save them for my next batch of soup. Next time I’ll only have to do a fraction of the chopping!
Add the garlic, onion, carrot, celery, chicken breast (it’s hiding under there), bay leaf, basil, thyme, and some freshly cracked pepper to the slow cooker.
Add four cups of water and give it a good stir. Place the lid on the slow cooker and cook on high for four hours or low for eight hours.
After which, it will look like this. From this point forward, you want to keep the lid on the slow cooker as much as possible to hold the heat in. The hotter the liquid, the lighter and fluffier the dumplings will be. If you cooked yours on low, turn the heat to high at this point.
Quickly remove the chicken breast and replace the lid on the slow cooker. Using two forks, shred the chicken breast. It will be extremely tender, so this should only take second.
Return the chicken breast to the slow cooker and add a teaspoon of salt. Again, try to keep the lid on as much as possible, so work quickly. Allow it to continue to cook on high (with the lid on) while you mix up the batter for the dumplings… (or you can add some noodles at the point and just let them cook until tender).
Add the dry ingredients to the bowl: flour baking powder, salt, sugar, and dried parsley. Stir until they are well combined.
Add small pieces of the cold butter to the dry ingredients. Work the butter in using a pastry cutter or your hands until it resembles damp sand.
See how it kind of looks like clumpy, damp sand? Add the milk and then stir just until it forms a wet paste-like mixture.
It should be very soft and easy to scoop with a spoon. If your dough is too stiff (not enough milk) the dumplings will be dense and not light and fluffy.
Drop the batter onto the soup by the heaping spoonful. Hopefully the soup will be very close to, if not simmering at this point. The hotter the soup, the better the dumplings. Unfortunately I had kept the lid off a lot to take photos, so mine had cooled off significantly.
Keeping the lid on and the heat turned on to high, let the dumplings cook for 20 minutes. They’ll puff up like this as they cook.
I like to break the dumplings apart a bit because it also allows the bits of soaked dumpling to mix into the broth and make it a little creamy. Now it’s ready to serve!
Hearty, delicious, and 100% homemade!
Do you think the dumplings would work with soy milk?
Yep, that shouldn’t be a problem. :)
Beth-
This reminds me a lot of the chicken corn soup I had when I was a kid. Growing up in Central Pennsylvania, this kind of hearty dish is common among the PA Dutch. I was wondering if you could do your own version of chicken corn soup. It’s basically this recipe, but instead of dumplings you make rivels (pieces of dough), add hardboiled egg and corn. It’s my favorite soup and I’d love to see your take on it.
I made this a few days ago and it was excellent. I took some to work for lunch the next day and my friends said it smelled so good I needed to make extra for them next time. Instead of water I added chicken broth, and the dumplings came out great. Thank you so much for the easy recipe (it reminds me of my grandmothers chicken and dumplings) I know anything I make from your website will be a big hit. I’m remodeling my kitchen now so anything made in a slow cooker or with minimal cleanup is great.
Think I over-mixed my dumplings, as they came out chewy and still a bit raw in the middle. Also missed that part about salting the soup before adding the dumplings. My bad. Still a tasty, filling recipe. Would make again, and possibly add some Better Than Bouillon. Thanks for doing what you do, Beth!
This recipe came with such perfect timing. Literally the week this was published, the boo came down with a cold. Not only was this super delicious it did the trick! Beth saved the day and I looked like a rockstar, since making dumplings from scratch pretty much equals amazing girlfriend status. I didn’t use the crock since I didn’t have 4 hours and instead did it stovetop – only adjustment was needing more water and a chicken buillon to change my water to broth. Thank you Beth!
Thank You, Thank You, Thank You for keeping it healthy and no canned stuff in it! I love that! I just your blog and I am very excited to make this and check out what else you have in here.
I made this tonight using 6 cups water, 2 chicken breasts and one and a half cubes chicken bouillon. For the dumplings I substituted dairy free margarine for butter and water for milk. This is a great recipe and really filling and hearty. Next time I will add more veggies like potato and frozen peas.
Thanks for something new and delicious!
Another win! This recipe takes me back to the chicken and dumplings my mom used to make, but was much easier. One change we made, that I’m pretty sure you would approve of, was adding in a diced sweet potato that we had hanging out in our fridge. :)
One thing I really loved about this recipe is that it fits in perfectly with something my wife and I are doing lately. We are trying to eat better meat, less often. Since we only needed one chicken breast, we were able to get a local, humanely raised chicken breast. The little bit extra we paid wasn’t a big deal, since we needed so little.
Delicious! Followed the recipe to a tee except I added 2 chicken bouillon cubes along with the water and a teensy bit extra salt. So good!
I added a flour-water slurry before adding the dumplings to thicken up the broth. Was great!
Looks great! Any ideas for conversion times if I wanted to cook it on the stovetop? Thank you for sharing your recipes!
The chicken should be tender enough to shred after about 45 minutes of simmering on the stove top. Then just drop in the dumplings and continue with the recipe as usual. :)
Just put this together in the CrockPot for tonight – can’t wait! We’ve never gone wrong using one of your recipes, Beth – thank you!
I think the only difference between your chicken and dumplings and my chicken and dumplings is that I thicken the broth to make more of a gravy before I add the dumplings. I make the dumplings the same way. That’s the way I had them as a child, so it’s real comfort food for me.
What did you do to thicken your broth?
As the dumplings cook the bottom layer kind of dissolves into the broth and thickens it up a bit (it goes from clear to creamy looking).
I can sometimes get chicken for less than a $1/lb. I always feel like I’ve won something when I pay less than your listed prices, Beth. ;D
Do you freeze your soup starter? Wasn’t sure if you could freeze raw carrots and celery. I do it with raw onions but never the other. Thanks! I’ve got this recipe cooking right now. Love your blog.
Yes, I keep that bag of veggies in the freezer. They will soften a bit upon thawing, but they get soft when cooked in a soup anyway, so it’s no loss :)