Chicken and Dumplings

Chicken and Dumplings is the perfect comfort food: a hearty chicken and vegetable stew, with soft, biscuit-like dumplings on top.

The mouthwatering comfort food I'm about to share with you is Chicken and Dumplings - A hearty chicken stew filled with chicken thigh meat, carrots, celery and onions, topped with soft, doughy dumplings.

It's one of the dishes that I'll make for a small, cozy dinner party or just a family dinner at home.

How to Make Chicken and Dumplings:

Like some (but definitely not all) good food, making Chicken and Dumplings takes some time to prepare.

To fill the stew with rich, chicken flavor, you need to brown the chicken and remove the skin, then saute the veggies and cook the chicken and veggies together in the broth.

The chicken flavor comes from bone-in, skin-on chicken thigh meat, as well as chicken wings.

The chicken wings help to give the broth a thicker texture, thanks to all the cartilage in them. If you don't have any, you can skip them and add a couple of extra thighs instead.

How to Make Chicken and Dumplings ahead of time:

While making your Chicken and Dumplings ahead of time is not a requirement, it is a possibility with this recipe.

If you cook the chicken and veggies, then simmer for a while, the chicken can be removed and everything refrigerated overnight. This makes it so much easier to skim the now-solid fat from the top.

Then all you need to do to finish the recipe is stir the chicken back in, bring it to a simmer and cook the dumplings on top of the stew.

However, if you don't want to make it ahead of time, just skim as much of the fat from the top as you can with a spoon. You won't be able to get it all, but it's not the end of the world.

When it comes time to cook the dumplings, make sure you wrap the lid of the pot with a clean towel.

This ensures that the steam doesn't condense and drip back onto the dumplings, making them soggy. Instead, the steam gets absorbed by the towel.

Just make sure you wrap the towel well onto the top of the lid, ensuring that it doesn't fall onto the cooktop.

I, being overly cautious (and often accident-prone) in the kitchen, would probably use some type of clip or tape to fasten it securely, especially if I had a gas cooktop (I have an induction stove, so really, the danger is minimal for me).

Chicken and Dumplings Ingredients:

• Bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
• Salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Canola oil: or use any other neutral-flavored cooking oil
• Onions
• Carrots
• Celery
• Apple cider vinegar or replace with red or white wine vinegar
• Sodium-reduced chicken broth: Or replace with regular chicken broth (but the sodium content of your chicken and dumplings will be higher), or homemade chicken broth.
• Dried thyme
• Chicken wings: or skip the wings and add a couple of extra thighs, but the broth won't end up being quite as thick.
• Parsley
• All-purpose flour
• Whole wheat flour
• Sugar
• Salt
• Baking soda
• Buttermilk: or use plain yogurt, a mixture of plain Greek yogurt and milk, plain kefir, milk mixed with 1 Tablespoon lemon juice or vinegar, or dried buttermilk powder.
• Unsalted butter
• Large egg white

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Chicken and Dumplings Nutrition Notes

The nutrition information in the recipe below does account for removing the skin from the chicken thighs and the wings, but it does not account for skimming the excess fat from the top of the soup.

The more fat you can skim, the more you will reduce total and saturated fat as well as calories (this is easiest to do if you have time to let the soup chill before skimming).

Also note that the sodium in this recipe is high, despite using reduced-sodium broth. To further reduce sodium, use low sodium, or no salt added broth.

Chicken and Dumplings

Carissa Serink

Chicken and Dumplings is the perfect comfort food - warm and hearty, filled with chicken and vegetables.

5 from 3 votes

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr 40 minutes mins

Total Time 2 hours hrs

Course Entree

Cuisine American

Servings 8

Calories 515 kcal

Equipment

• Large Dutch Oven

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

Stew

• ▢ 2 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (8 thighs)
• ▢ Salt
• ▢ Freshly ground black pepper
• ▢ 2 teaspoons canola oil
• ▢ 3 small onions chopped
• ▢ 3 medium carrots peeled and chopped
• ▢ 2 ribs celery chopped
• ▢ 2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• ▢ 6 cups reduced sodium chicken broth
• ▢ ½ teaspoon dried thyme
• ▢ 1 pound chicken wings (10 wing pieces) (see note)
• ▢ ¼ cup minced parsley

Dumplings

• ▢ 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ▢ 1 cup whole wheat flour
• ▢ 1 teaspoon sugar
• ▢ 1 teaspoon salt
• ▢ ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ▢ ¾ cup cold buttermilk
• ▢ 4 Tablespoons unsalted butter melted and cooled (½ stick)
• ▢ 1 large egg white

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Instructions

 

Stew

• Dry 2 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs with a paper towel. Season with 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon pepper. Heat 2 teaspoons canola oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add half of the chicken thighs, skin side down. Cook until skin is well browned and crisp, about 5 minutes. Flip thighs and cook until well browned. Transfer thighs to a large plate and repeat with remaining thighs. Discard all except for 1 teaspoon of the fat from the Dutch oven.
• Add the chopped onions, carrots and celery to the pot. Cook until softened and beginning to brown, about 7 minutes. Slowly stir in 2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Stir in 6 cups reduced sodium chicken broth and ½ teaspoon dried thyme. Return the chicken thighs to the pot, as well as any juices from the plate and 1 pound chicken wings. Bring to a simmer and cover. Simmer until a paring knife slips easily into the chicken thighs, 45-55 minutes.
• Remove pot from heat. Remove chicken thighs and wings from pot with tongs and place on a plate to cool slightly. While chicken is cooling, skim as much fat as possible from the top of the stew with a spoon. Remove meat from bones and shred into bite-sized pieces. Discard bones and the skin from the chicken. Add meat back to the pot.

Dumplings

• Whisk together 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1 cup whole wheat flour, 1 teaspoon sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, and ½ teaspoon baking soda in a large bowl. Stir ¾ cup cold buttermilk and 4 Tablespoons unsalted butter (melted) together in a medium bowl so that the butter forms clumps. Whisk in 1 large egg white. Stir the buttermilk mixture into the flour mixture with a rubber spatula until the batter pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
• Return stew to a simmer and stir in ¼ cup minced parsley. Scoop the batter in 2 Tablespoon portions onto the top of the stew, leaving about ¼ inch between each scoop. Wrap the lid of the Dutch oven with a clean dish towel, and cover, ensuring that the towel does not fall onto the cooktop. Simmer until dumplings have doubled in size and a toothpick inserted into the center of one comes clean. Serve.

Notes

If you don't have chicken wings, use 1lb of extra chicken thighs instead. The resulting broth may not be as thick.

To make ahead: prepare recipe to the end of step 3. Remove chicken from pot, and when cool enough to handle, remove chicken from bones and place in an airtight container. Refrigerate broth in dutch oven, and chicken it it's container until ready to serve, up to 2 days. To prepare: skim fat from the top of the broth and stir chicken back into stew. Continue with recipe, bringing stew to a simmer while beginning to prepare dumplings.

Nutrition

Calories: 515kcal | Carbohydrates: 32g | Protein: 30g | Fat: 30g | Saturated Fat: 10g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 5g | Monounsaturated Fat: 11g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 136mg | Sodium: 857mg | Potassium: 660mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin A: 4362IU | Vitamin C: 6mg | Calcium: 76mg | Iron: 3mg

Keyword chicken, comfort food, dumplings, soup, stew

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***Recipe Adapted from The Complete America's Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook