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!
This recipe was absolutely delicious!
I added a tsp of dried rosemary, a tsp or dried oregano, a tsp of fresh parsley and some chicken bouillon to taste; it was a hit. I think I’ll be making this very often.
Love the Website , you guys are great , love the way you show everything step by step !
This recipe is one of my favorites! It’s just simply amazing and delicious! I modify it by substituting 2 cups of water with 2 cups of chicken broth, or even just a 14.5 oz. can of chicken broth for convenience. It makes the soup just that more flavorful! Either way, this recipe is a keeper! Thank you soooo much!
I made these and they were awesome! Posted about it on my blog. http://crayonsanddrywall.com/2014/07/06/slow-cooker-chicken-dumplings-and-blueberry-cheesecake-squares/
This site is amazing. Every recipe I’ve made from here turns out awesome. Well done!
This is simmering away as I type this! My house smells delicious =]
For those out there having trouble with the dumplings, I usually cover the top of my slow cooker with tin foil after putting the dumpling batter in. My lid doesn’t fit snugly on my slow cooker, and that helps to keep the steam where it should be.
This comment may have saved my nuggets tonight. Even on high, my slow cooker wasnt really vigorous enough to cook the dumplings in the time stated! With foil and a dishtowel over the top (after an extra 20 minutes of cooking) we ended up with super fluffy, delicate dumplings.
Every single recipe I make from this site is out of the park.
Ditto!
Same here!
Beth, thank you for so many good recipes.
This recipe worked out well. I used vegetable broth (3 cups) and 1 cup water and it worked well but was a tad saltier than I’d intended. Next time I’ll do 2 cups of each. Thanks for the recipe!
This was fantastic! I used 6 cups homemade chicken stock instead of the four cups of water and added 1 cup of peas when I took out the chicken for shredding. This fed me, my husband, and my two young girls dinner and there were 3 portions leftover for my husband to take to lunch. What a bargin! I have been combing the rest of the site all day looking for my next meal. Thanks for the real, affordable, family friendly food!
My family loved this! I altered the seasonings to our tastes but the cooking process was great! My crockpot didnt quite cook the dumplings properly but i just ladeled out some of the broth into another pot then added the uncooked dumplings to boiling broth. Then I added back to the chicken. My family loved it!
Love all your recipes! will you please please please do a german dish with spaetzel noodle?
This was really good and both my husband and toddler liked it a lot, too. My broth was pretty bland, so I think I’d need to do something nice time to up the flavour factor there. The dumplings worked out perfectly. We are in the UK, so (for anyone else on metric/without all purpose flour) I used 125-ish grams of plain flour, 1 teaspoon of baking powder and 60 grams of butter. I just poured the milk in until I got the right consistency. They rose and fluffed perfectly.
Thanks for posting this recipe! I made it tonight and it came out great! Personally, I cooked the chicken soup in the slow cooker overnight (because I’m too scared to leave it on while working) then I refrigerated the soup in the morning when it was done. When I came come I heated up the soup on the stove top, made the dumplings (I also added some half and half I had and chicken boulion). It was easier to get the dumplings going on the stove top. Amay-Zing!
This was such a delicious meal… I would put a little bit more water next time because the dumplings really soaked up a lot of the broth. Super delish and makes a ton. We got 7 servings out of the recipe.
This was delicious and so easy! I needed a recipe of Chicken and Dumplingsin the slow cooker that did not require cans of soup- yuck. This was so simple- I threw everything in the slow cooker sunday around lunch time and by dinner it was ready, made the dumpling mixture, plopped them in and done! We had leftovers for dinner last night! YUM.