Chicken and Dumplings Recipe (2024)

I’m a bit confused. Do you throw away the onions, celery & carrots you’ve strained out of the broth in Step 2? I get that they might be there just to flavor the broth, but tossing them seems a bit of a waste.

They puff up quite a lot so if they start as quarter sized (Superball size in 3D) they’ll be almost twice that size when they are done. I always have to restrain myself from making them bigger to start with. Trust me, smaller is better. They cook more evenly and have more sauce seasoning around them.

Chicken n' dumplings was a much loved dish made by my much loved - great cook grandfather in the day of my childhood in my family's Anglo household. My Sicilian husband who grew up with his Italian speaking grandmother heading the kitchen has never appreciated dumplings. Until now. These dumplings are so good even he likes them. And for those who may be dumpling virgins, you need to have and keep the broth at simmer when adding and cooking the dumpling dough.

Grace,
For those who aren't used to it, dumpling dough tends to expand at an incredible rate. Those dumplings in the photo may have started life as more than the size of a quarter, but not by much.
I'd take a soup spoon and uses that as my measure, but don't try to fill it like an icecream scoop. The dumpling should start out as big as the bowl of the spoon, not as big as the sphere the spoon would be part of if it kept going.
I hope that helps.
J

This was not my mother’s dumplings! Rather than water I did use boxed chicken broth. Having made my own broths for years, even with the comments from others, 40 minutes of cooking the chicken did not seem enough time to get a rich broth. Beginning with the boxed broth the flavor was sublime. The other thing I did was rather than sprinkle the parsley at the end I added it to the dumpling dough. Loved the look and flavor of the dumplings!

Great recipe but what really takes it to a higher lever is adding a few sprigs of fresh sage along with the thyme. Unbelievably sublime.

I'm thrilled because this recipe was a huge hit with the most persnickety members of my household. Here are my mini-modifications:1. I used a large sauté pan instead of a Dutch oven because I don't own a Dutch oven2. For step 2, I used 4c water & 4c chicken stock 3. For added flavor, I added a heaping tsp of chicken base between steps 4 & 5 4. In step 6, I added some of the carrots from the strained stock back into the dish because I like carrot heavy soups and stews

This is a sensation! We replaced all the liquid in the recipe with chicken broth, in essence making a doubly-enriched home for the dumplings. Other than that, we made the recipe as is. If you take your time with the roux, the resulting broth will be thick, luxurious and creamy. It's worth the cook time.Just to be sure this time-intensive version of the recipe was worth it, we tried the Pioneer Woman's recipe yesterday. Bland, bland, bland.

We made this yesterday almost completely to the recipe, came out fantastic. The only change I made is that I added a bay leaf with the thyme because I always put bay leaves into my soups.We'll definitely make again, next time I think we'll add some garlic to the stock and garlic powder to the dumplings. I may also mix the chives into the dumplings.

Just made this today. It's a lot of work but totally worth it - delicious and soulful! I made a mistake of adding parsley and chives to the dumplings - what a fabulous mistake!

This was a fantastic dinner for my under-the-weather husband and myself. It took closer to 3 hours than 2 to prepare, but the result was a thick, full flavored soup and pillowy soft dumplings. A winner! I used a whole cut up chicken instead of just thighs, and substituted sour cream thinned with a little water for the buttermilk. Leftovers the second night were just as good.

Delicious. Worth the effort. My first time making dumplings and hubby and I both thought the entire dish was delicious. I followed the recipe pretty closely so my dumplings came out light and springy. I did brown mushrooms in butter and white wine and added them to the stew during the final 18 minutes prior to adding the dumpling dough. Rich, delicious comfort food.

Your “true” dumplings are regional - maybe a Pennsylvania Dutch. I grew up with these fluffy dumplings, so they are “true” dumplings to me.

I am 70 years old and my mother’s chicken and dumplings were almost identical to this recipe except she used a pressure cooker. I have always been confused by flat things I think of as noodles being called dumplings. Maybe the difference is regional. I grew up near Buffalo and our dumplings were puffy, in our Scottish family.

I make this camping in a Dutch oven, taking a few short cuts like using precooked thighs. It’s pretty amazing taking the cover off and seeing the dumplings puffed up. Perfect meal!

Make 2x in oval cocotte, which in reality, takes 5 hours to make (not the 2 hours as listed in the recipe)

Made this with some sage, nutmeg (just a little), and hatch chili added. Didn’t have any carrots, so I left those out, but added sautéed onions and celery toward the end. So nice!

I thoroughly enjoyed this recipe!! It was a bit time consuming, but not difficult. By far the best experience I've had with the dumpling part of chicken and dumplings. My only note is that I felt it needed a kick of acid - which I was surprised not to see in an Alison Roman recipe - so I squeezed some lemon for a little bit of freshness at the end. Yum!!

This recipe is delicious! I've made it a handful of times and it's always perfect. It takes me closer to 3/3.5 hours to make it because I like to really brown the chicken thighs, and I let the stock simmer for closer to 1 hour (45 minutes at minimum!). Some comments mention that you can't make a good stock this quickly but I've found it to be extremely flavorful and the finished product is great; no need to add ready-made chicken broth/stock in my opinion (and I prefer intense flavors!).

Really delicious but kind of one note (note: chicken fat), even though I retained the stock veg.Should’ve added one or two bunches of kale.

I agree, tossing the carrots, celery, and onions seemed wasteful. I left mine in and did not strain the stock. Rather, I made the roux in a small saucepan to the side and then slowly added liquid to that until I could add it all back into the still. It was easy and was not lumpy at all. I also decided to cut the chicken in half and use mushrooms for the second pound. We loved it! I agree with adding some sage as well. I felt like it needed a boost in flavor.

Great recipe, not efficient. Quicker: sear chicken 10 min. Add carrots, onions, & celery for last 5. Make dumpling batter while searing. Add chicken stock, 1/2 as much. Simmer 10 min. Make roux in separate pan w/ just butter while simmering, add some broth from pot to roux, then mix roux into broth. Don't strain, just remove thyme sprigs, shred the chicken in the pot as soon as it will shred, remove skin & bones. Drop tiny dumplings in to cook, simmer until chicken & dumplings fully cooked.

Very very tasty. I cut back on the liquid by a cup or so because it looked so watery, but that was a mistake. The lovely dumplings soak it up. Make sure to keep the lid on tight so that they get steamed and simmered. Herbs are necessary for brightness. I think next time I might squeeze a bit of lemon into the pot along with the chives and parsley.

Made as written. Roux took longer to brown but didn’t make a difference. All agreed it was absolutely delicious. Served with a green salad but it needs something else to brighten it up.

I used all stock instead of water. It was insane! Will cook again

Really good! Roux is easy and adds great thickness without tasting of flour. Parsley on dumplings made them beautiful

love this ! -- I've made it 3 times -- The recipe is very well written. The only change I make is that I use an organic no-salt commercial chicken stock instead of water. It's a great make-ahead meal -- make the stew ahead of time and add the dumplings 20 minutes before serving.

Best chicken and dumplings we’ve ever had! I followed the recipe exactly as written and they turned out perfectly.

Totally misread the recipe and used onions carrots and leeks instead of celery. Not sure why but was delicious anyway! Used half stock half water and am in the UK so made suet dumplings. I also added a handful of pearl barley. Lovely casserole. Might add some other veggies next time to eke it out. Lemon to finish as suggested!