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!
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!
I made this today on a cool, drizzly morning. It is delicious! The only changes I made were: to sub the 4 cups water for 2 cups chicken broth, 2 cups water; and to add a little more milk (I probably did 1 cup milk instead of the recommend 3/4 cup). The broth gave it a nice flavor, while the extra milk gave the soup a nice creaminess. I cooked this on High for 4 hrs and it came out perfectly cooked. I would possibly do more chicken next time.
Just one more recommendation for the recipe: Remove the bay leaf when you shred the chicken! I nearly forgot, myself.
Thanks for the great (and money-saving) recipe!
I tried this recipe tonight and it was soooo gooood! I had some leftover buttermilk from some biscuits I made the other day, so I used that in the dumplings instead of milk. They were really tasty! I like this WAY better that the cream of chicken soup/canned biscuits chicken and dumplings recipe I had been using.
This recipe is really tasty, but I doctored it up a bit. Instead of using 4 cups of water, I used 6 cups of low sodium chicken broth. When the chicken was done cooking, I pulled out the majority of the onions, celery and carrots and threw them in a food processor to puree. I then put them back in the crock pot. I liked how it made the texture a little creamier. I also added a handful of fresh chopped parsley to the crock pot right before I dropped the dumplings in to steam. I haven’t tried the recipe the original way, but my husband and I both loved it the way it turned out with the few little changes I made. We will definitely make this again!
OOoh, I like the idea of puréeing the vegetables. Thanks for sharing that!
:-( I hate to do this because eveeything else that I have tried good, if not great, but I rely on honest reviews like others may do. This was not for us. It lacked the flavor that the traditional, old fashion recipe has that we typically use. I had to do quite a bit of doctoring up at the end. However, this may be a good recipe for others. Especially if they want something easy in a crockpot. It just wasn’t for us. Sorry. :-(
I felt the same way when I made this recipe about a year ago, but I think it would be super flavorful if you subbed in chicken broth for the water. I’m going to try this in the near future.
Lindsey, that is exactly what I ended up having to do at the end. I added bouillon to it and then some more spices (I don’t remember which now or how much).
I think what really helps in the flavor department is using the Better Than Boullion. I will never go back to cartons of chicken/beef/vegetable stock. This stuff is a bit more expensive up front (I think I paid $4-$5) but the flavor does not compare and you can make probably 10-32oz cartons of stock with a $5 jar of that stuff.
I strongly agree with those who replied to your comment. You could have seasoned the soup to your liking. I made the Chicken and Dumplings a few times, and added chicken broth instead of water for much added flavor.
I inhaled this soup like I was never going to eat again. I used 3 cups of broth and 1 cup of water, and I used brown sugar and light vanilla almond milk in my dumplings. No reason other than that’s what I had in the pantry.
As I was making it this morning, I was thinking, “Aww man, I don’t even like chicken soup that much.” Little did I know how incredible it was going to taste.
I had to use a little more milk to get the dough to the right consistency, but oh man. The dumplings were incredible, and I could eat them plain.
Hi Beth,
Thank you for your wonderful recipes! Quick question: what are your thoughts on putting frozen chicken in the crock pot? I’ve heard other blogger swear by this, but the prospect of e.coli and salmonella deter me,
Although I have done it once or twice, I wouldn’t suggest it because of the possible food safety issues that you mentioned. It’s possible that the frozen meat can make it take MUCH longer than usual to reach a safe temperature inside the slow cooker, thereby giving dangerous bacteria time to flourish.
Wow! This was FAN-Friggin-TASTIC! Have yet to make a Budget Bytes recipe that I didn’t like, but this was delish and easy to make. I was super nervous about the dumplings, as I’ve never made them before and I can’t bake or mix dry ingredients together without there being a horrible outcome. I think the dumplings were the best part. My husband loved it, and had a second helping. This is super filling when you have a dumpling with it. Plenty of leftover for lunch tomorrow. Can hardly wait.
Will be trying this! I do have a couple of questions….I’d like to omit the celery, any suggestions on what I can replace it with? And would using broth instead of water make it too salty?
Jenni,
My husband and I are both vegetarians so I make this soup using a vegetable broth and it’s great! I don’t add any extra salt. I’m sure it would be great with chicken broth, just monitor the taste as you go and decide whether or not it needs any salt.
I think you can leave the celery out without really replacing it with anything. Using broth in place of water will add a lot of flavor, just don’t add the extra teaspoon of salt that I added and you should be fine. :)
This is such an awesome and easy recipe. And it totally gets better every time you make it! Thank you so much for sharing! :)
We’ve made this probably 5-6 times and I swear it gets better each time! This is one of our favorites. It is so easy to make, too!
Loved this one! The dumplings were absolutely incredible – so buttery and fluffy. I could eat them as a meal by themselves! We only got four servings out of this (not six) eating it as a stand alone meal. It was so delicious, though, that I think next time I’ll just double it!
I love this recipe. It’s so easy to make. I do have an alternative dumpling recipe for you though. It is cheaper and easier since it doesn’t use butter. I use regular milk with a bit of vinegar instead of buttermilk which makes it even less expensive. For your chicken and dumplings recipe, I usually make half of the following dumplings recipe and it’s plenty.
2 cups flour, 1 tablespoon baking powder, 1 cup buttermilk, 2 eggs, minced chives or green onions.
Combine dry ingredients. Combine wet ingredients and chives or onions. Make a well in the flour mixture. Place the wet mixture in the middle and mix until a dough forms. Place by the teaspoonful in the chicken stew and poach.
I made this for my significant other this week, and it was a big hit! I took the recommendations to use some chicken stock in addition to water, which seemed to work well. Being a vegetarian, I actually have no idea how it tasted, but it sure smelled yummy :).
Clarissa,
I make a vegetarian version of this that is amazing!
Your Dumplings were so soft and fluffy.
Added a special hint of
” What my Grandma used to make ” to my meal.
Thank you.
I look forward to more of your recipes. yum yum
I use a handful of your recipes each week for simple, yummy weeknight dinners so thank you! Are there any changes that need to be considered if I use bone-in chicken for this recipe?
It should work pretty much the same. Just remove the bones before cooking the dumplings. :)
I used bone-in breasts when I made this and I think that having the bones added a lot to the broth. Plus the slow cooker makes them peel right off the bones because the meat gets so tender :)