Chicken and Dumplings
Homemade Chicken and Dumplings Recipe: my family’s favorite easy chicken and dumplings recipe with big fluffy dumplings that are made from scratch in minutes!
If you are looking for the best ever Chicken and Dumplings recipe, well, you found it. Right here.
I don’t like to claim “best ever” very often, I honestly try very hard not to say it since we all have different tastes.
However, if you love a creamy chicken soup with tons of flavor and big fluffy homemade dumplings from scratch, then this recipe is the one for you.
Don’t get nervous when I say this is the best chicken and dumplings recipe from scratch, because it is also a really EASY recipe to make!
You just need my one secret ingredient to keep it extra creamy without having to simmer your Chickens and Dumplings for a long time or adding heavy cream!
Chicken and Dumplings from scratch:
The homemade dumplings for this Chicken and Dumplings recipe are so easy, that they only take 5 minutes to whip together.
All you have to do is add all the dry ingredients into a bowl: flour, baking powder, pepper, salt and thyme.
Then you add in the butter and milk and drop the dumplings into the simmering soup with a cookie scoop!
If you want to learn how to make chicken and dumplings from scratch, this is definitely a great recipe to try since it’s so easy AND tasty.
Honestly, even if you are an expert at making homemade dumplings from scratch, this recipe might change your mind on how you make them.
Years and years ago, I used to make my chicken and dumplings recipe with canned refrigerated biscuits.
But so many times, I would go through all the effort and my dumplings would disappear and cook into nothing.
So I started trying out different methods of making my own dumplings and this was the clear winner.
The homemade dumplings have great flavor, take no time to make, use everyday ingredients and cook in just a few minutes! Winner!
Chicken and Dumplings Ingredients
The rest of the ingredients needed for this Homemade Chicken and Dumplings are simple classic ingredients.
Some things are best when they are kept simple to let the flavor shine and I absolutely think Chicken and Dumplings is one of those things.
However, I do have one secret ingredient that is KEY to making the best chicken and dumplings…Evaporated milk.
Evaporated milk is creamier when compared to whole milk, but not as thick as heavy whipping cream (and a lot less fattening as well).
As for thickening the soup, I personally like to use all purpose flour and butter to sauté our vegetables in. The two combined make a great soup gravy.
As for the vegetables, I like to use the classic vegetables: onion, celery, carrots and garlic. You can add peas if you are a green pea fan!
Lastly, you can make your own easy shredded chicken, but I buy a rotisserie chicken from the store to keep things simple and easy for myself. Just being honest!
This Chicken and Dumplings recipe has been a winner with my family and circle of friends for years, but I have never shared it on the blog.
It’s not because I didn’t want to share my family recipe with all of you, it’s just that I usually make it when I am craving comfort food on a cold night.
And then as soon as it’s done, I don’t want to worry about working and taking photos…I want to dive in face first!
But after I shared videos of me making this exact recipe on Instagram stories a few weeks ago, I knew I HAD to share the recipe asap.
So many of you tried the recipe and made this soup and immediately started sending me pictures and reviews.
No joke, over 25 people sent me messages proclaiming this to be the BEST Chicken and Dumplings recipe, ever! Yahoo!!
One woman even told me her husband said it was better than his Grandma’s Chicken and Dumplings recipe that she won an award for at the state fair.I’m not going to lie, that compliment felt pretty dang good! 😉 But if you don’t believe me, just read all the reviews below.
Please share how this Chicken and Dumplings recipe turns out for you, I can’t wait to hear what you think!
Chicken and Dumplings Recipe
Ingredients
- 6 tablespoons butter
- 1 cup chopped yellow onion
- 1 cup matchstick carrots
- 1 cup diced celery
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 tablespoons all purpose flour
- 12 oz (1 can) evaporated milk
- 32 oz (1 quart) chicken stock
- 4 cups shredded cooked chicken (make your own
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme (or 1 teaspoon dried thyme)
- 2 teaspoons freshly cracked black pepper (or to taste)
- salt, to taste
Homemade Dumplings:
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon, baking powder
- 1 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme (or 1 teaspoon dried thyme)
- 3/4 cup (6 oz) whole milk
- 4 tablespoons butter, melted
Instructions
- In a large heavy bottomed pot (like a dutch oven), melt butter over medium-high heat.
- Add onion, carrots and celery. Cook for 5 minutes, until vegetables being to wilt. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute more.
- Add flour and stir to combine. Cook for 1 minute. Add evaporated milk and chicken stock and quickly stir to combine.
- Bring to a boil and add chicken, thyme, black pepper and salt. Let soup simmer, uncovered, while you make dumplings.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, pepper, salt and thyme. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour the milk and butter into the center of it.
- Using a wooden spoon (or rubber spatula), stir together until dough ball forms. If your dough seems too dry, you can add an extra tablespoon of milk.
- Using a large** sized cookie scoop, scoop dough and drop directly into the simmering soup. Place them around the pot, not all in the same place.
- Once all dumplings have been added, gently press them down so the soup runs over just the tops of them.
- Place the lid on your pot and lower the heat a little to a low simmer (you don’t want the bottom of the soup to burn but also want the soup to still be simmering to cook the dumplings).
- Cook for 15 minutes, gently stir the soup/dumplings and then cut one dumpling in half to make sure they are cooked through.
- If the dumplings are cooked through, serve hot! If not, cook an additional 2-3 minutes and check again.
Notes
*You can use a medium sized cookie scoop in place of a large cookie scoop to get more dumplings. Start checking if they are done around the 10 minute mark.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 6 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 731 Total Fat: 39g Saturated Fat: 20g Trans Fat: 1g Unsaturated Fat: 17g Cholesterol: 162mg Sodium: 1096mg Carbohydrates: 57g Fiber: 3g Sugar: 14g Protein: 37g
This is pure comfort food! Perfect to warm up on a chilly day!
This is the perfect comfort meal!!
This is seriously calling my name. The true essence of comfort food.
Looks incredibly delicious! I love everything about this recipe, totally drooling right now!
That looks really delicious! Ultimate comfort food!
I love how creamy this soup is. I love it!
This looks so creamy! I need this in my life right now!
I am so glad you posted the recipe! Your stories made it look delicious. Can’t wait to try it.
I love creamy Chicken n Dumplings. When I was a child my mother made it for me when I got sick. Have not had in 14 years. I am 65 disabled and have been thinking of my parents a lot. My mother use to make a hot spinach salad that was sorta sweet, bacon, onion and wilted spinach but I can’t find the reciepe. I think there was vinegar and sugar.?
This might be similar to what you’re looking for, my mother said wilted salad was her favorite! https://www.geniuskitchen.com/recipe/wilted-spinach-salad-73051
I remember my mom making this salad in the 70’s. I just put hot spinach salad into Google and a lot of recipes came up. Basically, you make a spinach salad with what you like…spinach, hard eggs, croutons or crunchy chow me in noodles,mushroom, tomato, water chestnut and mandarin oranges is what I like. Then make a vinegarette with olive oil, Dijon, cider vinegar, honey, black pepper, and a few bacon strips cut up. you can add a bit of bacon fat to the dressing if desired. Then heat the dressing and toss over the salad. Good stuff.
My mother made the same. It was from the original red checked Betty Crocker cookbook that was the Bible to women of that era. I found the original recipe…
https://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/bacon-spinach-salad/328fb77d-3f0d-4ebf-8763-7ab3e4519b84
Maybe this is similar to what you’re looking for?
https://pin.it/vbjtj6g3zws7nw
My mouth is literally watering. Would love to make this when my family is in town. Pinned!
WOW! This looks like an inviting winter meal! So warming. It looks pretty easy to make too. Love this kind of recipe…It is a keeper recipe for sure. Thanks..
Thanks for this easy recipe! My teenager Son, Loved it and so did I. Very easy to make, but I used a small cookie scoop and the dumplings blew up Big. I wouldn’t use a bigger one myself, but that’s just me.
Could I make this ahead of time?
I just reheated mine from last night in the microwave and it was yummy. Didn’t affect the taste or texture of the dish.
I made this last night and it was lovely! I added more thyme and also sage to both the dumplings and the chicken mixture. My husband was feeling under the weather and a bowl of this and he’s out playing golf. The dumplings were so easy and really delicious (with the added sage and more thyme). Thanks for the recipe!
An addition of sage sounds amazing! Thanks for that idea.
Make this twice one just like your recipe the other with Lactaid for milk and gluten free flour for dumplings. A little to much thyme for my family taste so omitted it in the second try. The gluten free dumpling turned out better than the original recipe.
Can you use a bag of mixed frozen veggies instead of fresh veggies?
Yes, if you prefer. Make sure and don’t leave out the garlic and onion for flavor!
I made this last night and presentation was wonderful but my dumplings still were under cooked and doughy for me and I kept cooking and cooking and checking and checking but I couldn’t taste the difference…. I guess I expected the biscuits to be light and airy but they looked dense and heavy…..any insight? I would appreciate it. I do like the dish
They are a dense dumpling, if you aren’t a fan of the texture of the bigger dumplings, I would recommend trying a smaller cookie scoop for smaller dumplings which will cook quicker!
Oh… my… word… This is so good. The only thing I changed was the flour. I used gluten free flour instead of all purpose. I will be making this again.
So glad to hear it worked with your gluten free flour!!
This was incredible. Perfect seasoning and oh so creamy. Just Yum!
Yay! Glad you enjoyed it!! Thanks for taking the time to come back and comment!
What if you don’t have a cast iron pan? Can I just use my regular pot?
I used just a regular large pot and it turned out delicious!
Easy and very delicious! ,
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Can you substitute 2% milk for the evaporated milk?
I don’t use evaporated milk and it’s great!
Can whole or 2% milk be a substitute for evaporated milk?
I don’t use evaporated milk and it’s great!
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Yummy Thank you for sharing
Amazing
I made the chicken and dumplings for my family last week. It was perfectly delicious. I’ve never had a better recipe. Thank you
I made this last night. The recipe was so easy to follow. My Tennessee husband is so very proud of his New York wife, who now makes the best chicken and dumplings he’s ever had! He said the addition of vegetables and the creamy texture is outstanding. Thank you!!!
I’m trying this recipe tonight! I’ve always made dumplings with seasoned flour and eggs and used cream of chicken soup with stock instead of evaporated milk so this will be an interesting change. Hoping my baking powder is still good as I havent used it in awhile! My husband loves a good soup so hoping this is a winner to add to my recipe book! I’ll post how it turns out 🙂
Verdict is….. not for us I think it was too much thyme, and I used less than what was called for. It smelled great but the taste was just too…. sweet maybe is the word I’m looking for. My husband voted no for trying it again, even omitting the thyme.
Literally making this right now, it smells delicious!
Great recipe only thing I will do different next time is less Thyme. It’s a bit overpowering so I remade the dumpling mix and left the thyme out of them and it helped.
It turned out great.. I didn’t have any caned milk or or chicken broth. So I broil my chicken and made my own broth. I used whole milk instead. I also didn’t have thyme and I was told I could substitute oregano so I did but I only put half and that didn’t go to well but we still ate it.. other than that it was delicious!! Thanks for showing
Made this today and while everything came out good- too much thyme. I used the recommended amount for dried thyme and it was waaaaaaaay too much! My husband gave the okay to try it again with less thyme, but he could barely get through a few bites. I know this is a great recipe though and will try again. I will also be making smaller dumplings because I didn’t realize how much they would puff up. 4/5
I made this tonight as our Christmas Eve dinner. I followed the recipe very closely except I used some cornstarch to thicken it a little more because it was too soupy. I used a medium size scoop for the dumplings because I thought that might cook better. I cooked the dumplings 12 minutes and checked – raw. I cooked about 8 or 9 more minutes and they looked done. To be honest I loved the creamy chicken and it tasted great! The dumplings, however, were still partially raw and gloppy and I realized I just don’t like things like this – they tasted like soggy bread and I hate soggy bread so – The soup is a 5 star keeper but I’ll find something more like a thick noodle to substitute for the soggy dumplings. I guess you just can’t win them all.Hubby liked them better than I did. Also, I stuck 2 in the microwave for just under a minute and it seemed to finish cooking them. Thanks for the recipe. Love the soup!
Made this tonight , added fresh parsley to the dumplings and three fresh bay leaves to the soup . Loved it , the dumpling recipe is superb .
This was hands down the best chicken and dumplings we’ve ever had! My husband even said it was better than his grandma’s. Can’t wait to make it again.
Can you use 2% milk?
I’ve used this recipe twice. The second time was tonight. I followed the recipe exactly tonight and the dumplings are still doughy and raw even after cooking for an additional 12 minutes! I don’t want to cook it any longer as the rotisserie chicken I’ve used is already cooked.
This is soooo good! My family inhaled it and asked to take leftovers to school/work 🙂
I had a box of bisquick so I used that to make the biscuits. I will definitely be making this again! Thanks for the recipe!
This recipe was perfect !! Even my son in law had seconds. And he never liked the cream of soup version. I was really surprised at how delicious this turned out !! Thank you
I made it and it taste great….the biscuits on top is the bomb.com! Easy to make but taste like you worked hard all day in the Kitchen!
Have you ever adapted this recipe for a crock pot? I’m wondering if I need to make any changes. Thanks!
I made this tonight for the first time, so glad I did! Delicious!! My husband loved it! We now have another go to recipe!! Thank you for sharing!
This dish was delicious. Thanks
Made this tonight for dinner. I will never make another version ever again. This was absolutely amazing. Other than using 2 boxes of 32oz broth, and pinching the dough off and rolled into balls for the dumpling, I followed the recipe just as it written. AMAZING RECIPE! RIDICULOUSLY DELICIOUS!
OMG!!! This was THE best chicken and dumplings I’ve ever had!!!! I luckily had all the ingredients and it was simple and easy to make. My husband RAVED about it the whole time he was eating it. Thank you for this recipe to add to my comfort food file !!!!
This was excellent. I needed to make Chicken and Dumplings and I lost my dumpling recipe I’ve used for years! I went in search of a new one and found this. It is easier to make and tastes better! Thank you, I will use the recipe in the future – the only change I made was to add peas.
This sounds delicious! Will be making it tonight. I wonder if those saying it was too much thyme are using ground instead of dried?
PS….I love the colour of the mixer in the background of the picture on the bottom of the page!
This recipe is beyond good! Only thing next time would be to wait for my bowl to cool down before eating it so fast! I couldn not wait The flavor is so so good and the dumplings rise great. I will be making this recipe again very soon!
I just realized I bought Condensed Milk, is this the same as evaporated milk? I’m a clueless cook!!
Hi Margaux! Sorry, no they are not the same and I would not recommend using condensed milk in this recipe!
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This was fantastic! Thank you for creating a simple, but delicious recipe. I used Costco shredded cooked chicken which worked really well. I will definitely make this again and would highly recommend this recipe to anyone who loves chicken and dumplings 🙂
Can this be doubled? Looks amazing but 6 servings won’t be enough. I’m assuming a serving is one cup ! Thank you
Yes, it can be doubled! Just make sure you have a big pot!
The first time I made this it was great. The second time the dumplings were hard and didn’t taste good don’t know what happened
Best chicken and dumpling recipe ever! These dumplings worked! No dumpling glop. Omg… Yum!
Jessica, it’s really awesome! This will quickly become a favorite in our house!
I have always used canned biscuits to make my chicken and dumplings recipe but when I saw how easy this was I had to give it a try. Oh man, am I happy I did! This recipe is AMAZING! The dumplings are delish and the broth is wonderful! I will never use another chicken and dumplings recipe ever again. THANK YOU!
It’s amazing.
Video was helpful to see and not just have to read what and how to do it 🙂
I have always been afraid to make dumplings (I don’t know why), this recipe is fantastic!!! I made it last night and the family was crazy over it. I’m a very good cook so my family is used to getting great food. I cooked boneless skinless chicken breasts in the 32 ounces of broth & then shredded it. Our dog even was looking for more after he got the baby’s small left overs! The only very small addition I did was add 1/4 teaspoon of turmeric for a golden color. I was so proud to serve this to my family and all the raves I received thrilled me!
This was amazing…thank you for sharing
Oh MY! I love this recipe. For years, I have searched and searched, tweaked and improvised recipes to have herb biscuits as dumplings and a good ‘soup’ as the base for chicken and dumplings. The Search is OVER. This is the best recipe. I ate WAY too much. I doubled the recipe based on how much chicken I got off the rotisserie chicken I had. I have a 15 in SS dutch oven which gives me lots of surface area for dumpling so the dumplings were not stacked so they were done in 15 mins. Yum, yum, yum. I am going to go delete the other 20 recipes I had saved along the way. This is now my go-to. This also means that many of my friends will get it since I love taking chicken and dumplings as a meal. I mean, it is meat, veggies and bread in a single dish. I will be including the recipe for the families because I know they will be asking! This is my first recipe from you and I am going to check the rest out. Thanks for sharing.
Just made this for dinner and it was amazing and so simple! I made my own shredded chicken and I just used chicken breast tenderloins so that the chicken would cook faster!
Really, really delicious! We are vegetarians so I subbed veg bouillon and fake chicken. The biggest error I’ve made in the past is too many/too big biscuits. I forced myself to make smaller balls of dough and flatten them out a little so they were biscuit shaped and used the widest flat bottom pot I had. I still had too much dough to fit it all in, but the biscuits did not form a big, raw super biscuit this time. This yummy recipe is a keeper! Thank you, Chef.
Jessica, this is really a great recipe. I will make this at the next chance i get.
Jessica, it looks so yummy! I love the step-by-step instructions, making it an easy recipe to follow!
Jessica, what a delicious recipe! Made it for lunch and loved it!
Jessica, this looks wonderful! I’ll try it today. Thank you for sharing!
The recipe calls for whole milk. I want to use the evaporated milk. Is it the same measurement for either milk? Thank you!!!
Can’t wait to try this recipe.
I made this recipe this evening. Amazing! I did make some changes. 1. I added half a cup of cheddar cheese to the biscuit mix. 2. I used less time and added oregano and rosemary. 3. I used a leek because I only had half an onion.
The biscuit were dense but fluffy and the flavor was perfect!
OMG…these dumplings were amazing for such simple ingredients and I consider myself a dumpling afficianado. I make farina dumplings, German bread dumplings, apple and plum dumplings, egg dumplings, biscuit dumplings…you name it…I’ve made it. The Pioneer Woman has a dumpling with cornmeal in it. Very good too, but these were just simply amazing. The only things I did differently is made my own soup base which is the bomb (I use whipping cream in the broth and add lots of veggies along with the chicken)…and used sage in lieu of thyme. I don’t know if this had anything to do with it, but I used organic while milk (has the cream top), and sweet unsalted butter. They were sooo light and fluffy. Anyway…thanks…now I just have to figure out a gluten free option and a Keto friendly one that actually tastes as good as yours! Thanks lady!!!
I had leftover chicken to use and this looked easy enough. I made it without the onion (yuk!) and carrots, and with whole milk. My entire family thought it was OMGosh good! Next time I’ll make sure I have evaporated milk. I’m curious to see if that makes it even better.
This was wonderful! Never knew that those flavors would come out as they did in this beautiful dish! Follow the recipe word for word!!!