Made with a rotisserie chicken and canned biscuits, this easy Chicken and Dumplings recipe is ready in 30 minutes! It brings all the cozy flavors of the classic, but is quick enough for busy weeknights.
Chicken and dumplings have always been my favorite comfort food dinner since childhood. This quick and easy version uses canned biscuits for the dumplings and canned cream of chicken as the gravy base. It’s minimal effort, but still tastes like you spent hours cooking.
If I have the time, I like to make my homemade chicken and dumplings from scratch. However, this is my go-to version when I have a craving, but only about 30 minutes to spare. Made all in one pot, cleanup also couldn’t be any easier!
“This easy chicken and dumplings is my husband’s new *favorite* meal, we have seriously made it once a week for the last few months! I add a little cajun seasoning and crushed red pepper flakes to ours because we like a little spice in just about everything, but I followed the recipe exactly otherwise!” — Brittany, home cook, homesteader, and recipe tester.
Key Ingredients
Find the full printable recipe with specific measurements below.
- Chicken: You need 3 cups of cooked, chopped or shredded chicken. To keep it extra easy, I always grab a rotisserie chicken!
- Evaporated Milk: Canned evaporated milk is my secret weapon to creating a rich and creamy broth. It’s lower in fat and less expensive than heavy cream and can be stored in your pantry for anytime you need it. However, you can use half and half or heavy cream if you prefer.
- Cream of Chicken Soup: You can use any flavor of canned condensed “cream of” style soup. I like the flavor best from cream of chicken soup, but cream of onion or celery are good substitutes.
- Canned Biscuits: Buy plain, large (16.3 ounces) southern buttermilk style biscuits. “Homestyle” biscuits also work well, but do not buy the flaky biscuits. If you can only find the smaller sized biscuits, cut them in half, not fourths, so they don’t disappear.
- Vegetables: I like to use celery, onion, garlic, and carrots to add flavor. However, if you are a plain jain kind of chicken and dumplings person, skip the celery and carrots. I still highly recommend including the onion and garlic for savory flavor.
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Tips For Making Easy Chicken and Dumplings with Biscuits
I recommend having all your ingredients out, prepped, and ready to go before starting. This easy chicken and dumplings recipe moves quickly once we get going! Scroll down to the printable recipe card for full instructions!
Sauté the vegetables until they start to brown before adding the broth. This takes the flavor up a notch and gives the whole soup a richer, homemade flavor.
Once you add the broth, bring the mixture to a simmer – not a boil. A gentle simmer is key because it warms everything without reducing the liquid too much.
Don’t skip tossing the raw biscuits in flour. This helps thicken the soup and also prevents the biscuits from sticking together too much as they cook.
Drop biscuits in an even layer and cook with the lid on! Press the dumplings below the broth and break them apart as needed, as they cook. Leaving the lid on the pot traps the steam and helps the dumplings to cook quickly. You can test one by splitting it open, it should be soft and fluffy, not doughy.
Don’t over simmer chicken and dumplings. If you overcook biscuit dumplings, they can essentially fall apart and disappear (or become overly dense).
Once the dumplings are cooked, turn off the heat and let the pot sit for a couple of minutes uncovered. This helps the broth thicken a bit and gives the dumplings a chance to soak in all that flavor without getting mushy.
See What Readers Are Saying
Easy Chicken And Dumpling Recipe Variations
- Make Ahead: If interrupted, wait to add the biscuits. Prep the gravy base and turn down the heat to a very low simmer. 10 minutes before serving, turn up the heat until gravy is bubbly. Add broth to loosen if needed and add cut biscuits at the end of cook time.
- Bisquick Dumplings: Mix together 2 cups Bisquick baking mix and 2/3 cup milk. Drop heaping tablespoons of dough into the pot and follow the same cooking directions.
- Add Herbs: Try adding a large pinch of dried poultry seasoning to the soup base. You can also throw in a bay leaf or thyme.
- Crockpot: Follow my dumpling directions for this slow cooker chicken and dumplings. You also may enjoy my instant pot chicken and dumplings!
Easy Chicken and Dumplings with Biscuits
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 large yellow onion, diced
- 3 stalks celery, sliced
- ½ cup matchstick carrots
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 cups cooked and shredded chicken, use a rotisserie chicken for ease
- 8 oz evaporated milk, or half and half
- 1 (10.5 oz) can cream of chicken soup
- 40 oz chicken broth
- salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
- 1 (16.3 oz) can buttermilk biscuits, if you like a lot of biscuits, add an extra 5 oz can of biscuits
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
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Instructions
- In a large heavy bottomed pot, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add vegetables – onion, celery, carrots and garlic. Cook, stirring often until tender, about 6 to 8 minutes.
- Add the shredded cooked chicken, chicken broth, evaporated milk, and can of cream of chicken and bring to a simmer. Season soup to taste with salt and pepper.
- Cut the biscuits into quarters (each biscuit will be sliced into 4 equal pieces) and lightly toss them in flour.
- Add the floured biscuits to the soup and lightly press them under the broth with a spoon or spatula. Place the lid on the pot and cook the dumplings for about 8 to 10 minutes. I like to break apart the dumplings, and press them back under the broth, if they get stuck together.
- Test one of the biscuits to ensure they have cooked through and are not raw in the middle. Once the biscuits are cooked through, serve immediately!
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More Cozy Chicken Dinner Recipes
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- Upgrade crockpot chicken and dumplings with homemade drop biscuits.
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- Chicken fried chicken with white gravy is a southern delicacy.
- This crockpot chicken and rice is the ultimate easy comfort food.
- If you love cheesy chicken casseroles, try my chicken spaghetti casserole!
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I was never a fan of Chicken and Dumps but made them because they are my boyfriend’s favorite. I found this recipe and it has become a recipe I cook several times a month. This is one the best recipes I’ve ever come across and I even switched it up a bit to make chicken noodle soup. Soooooooo delicious. 10/10!
Made this recipe for my HS girls golf team and they were thrilled. Combined with masked potatoes and corn and there wasn’t much left when it was time to board the bus. Will make this in the spring for my boys golf team and certainly a time or two for wife and I.
So yummy! I made a double batch. I substituted seasoned salt for the salt in the recipe. I also substituted cream of herbed chicken. Added a teaspoon of thyme.
Hello Jessica!
I made your chicken & dumplins again this evening. They turned out pretty good. They were probably better last time. But still didn’t have any condensed milk. Did I mention, last time I didn’t have that either. Well, I tried to boil it down & then let it simmer a while, like 25 minutes, like it said when I looked it up, to make it condensed milk. Well, I did that but it didn’t boil down enough but I went ahead & just added it into the pot with the rest of ingredients. So, then I added the dumplins & the rice, but I added some water prior to the dumplins. And I didn’t have the carrots this time but it was still pretty good.
Hi Carol! I’ve never added rice, so that’s a new one to me! FYI for the milk, you want to use evaporated milk (not condensed milk) but you can also use half and half or even whole milk instead. Glad it still turned out good and you enjoyed it!
Hi Jessica! I just made your Chicken & Dumplings & they were delicious. I’ve med them before but not like this. Mine are usually plain & I put rice in it. I put rice in this one & I used regular milk cause I didn’t have the other. I also used some frozen onion, celery & bell pepper I had. (all chopped already). And I had to cut the carrots up in sticks. That’s what took me the longest. I searched for a way to do it & the garlic too. I usually don’t use the whole garlic. I’ll send a picture of what’s left of it now.
Hi Carol! I’m glad you enjoyed it! To save time, I buy the matchstick carrots already pre-cut at the store. You can always just dice them or leave them in coins, they may just need a little longer cook time to soften. As for the garlic, I highly recommend a garlic press for fresh garlic! It saves a lot of effort, just squeeze the clove in the press and it’s perfectly minced in seconds!
Thank you for the information, Jessica! I’ll have to get me a garlic press. I usually use garlic powder tho. And I’ll have to keep in mind to get the bag of carrot sticks at the store for this recipe.
Why does this recipe vary so much from your other chicken and dumpling recipe, “The BEST Chicken and Dumplings Recipe” when the ONLY difference is adding homemade dumplings versus canned biscuits? I don’t understand why the amount of chicken, butter and vegetables have any bearing on what dough you put in, AFTER the main part of the dish is prepared.
Hi Cydnee, because it’s a different recipe – people like different types of recipes… I don’t want to share the same recipe multiple times with just slight changes. I try to offer different types of recipes to meet everyone’s needs.
You can absolutely use the directions for these canned dumplings (in this recipe) in my “best chicken and dumplings recipe” in place of the homemade drop dumplings.
My husband dearly loves chicken and dumplings, especially from a nearby restaurant. Tonight he said I was surpassing the restaurant version! I left out carrots, only because I was out, used almond milk and used Better Than Bouillon and added poultry seasoning. We both had seconds. Will use this recipe many times.
This was a hit with the whole family! Funny thing is I’ve never had it outside of a can before as a child and never thought about making it because I assumed it would be too complicated lol but this was one of the easiest recipes to follow! The only thing I did differently was use all but three of the biscuits and cut them up into tinier pieces. This recipe gave me no issues. Thank you for sharing! This will be a staple for my family for years to come
Great recipe added some smoke paprika, poultry seasoning and hot sauce. Would cut the biscuits into 1/8ths. But good overall.
My husband said it was great and would be a good base for chicken and gnocchi
C & D are one of my favorite dishes. This is a delicious and easy recipe. Rotisserie chicken and canned biscuits are the way to go. I did flattened the biscuits to 1/4″ then cut into 1″ squares was the only thing I changed. Cooked fast and tasted great. Will absolutely use this again. Thanks for putting this recipe out there.
Besides being tasteless, my dumplings never got done, not even after 40 minutes. They weren’t fluffy but gluttonous blobs. Very disappointed.
I cut my dumplings into 6 instead of 4 which helped them cook faster. As far as flavor, add some salt and pepper to the flour before you toss the biscuits.
Hi Connie, I’m sorry to hear that, what kind of canned biscuits did you use? No matter what kind, they should definitely have cooked in 40 minutes!
This is the easiest most delicious dinner I’ve ever made! My family loved it!!!
My dumplings don’t get done–even after 40 minutes!
I used 2 cans of cream out chicken added more seasoning and used flaky biscuits rolled thin with flour I cut 5 long and cut in half so 50 in a can if 5 flaky biscuits it was so good
Hmm, was your heat at a simmer (low boil)? If you quartered the dumplings (one dumpling cut into 4 pieces) – they really shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes to cook!
I had the heat on simmer. But it may not have been on a low boil. I’ll try again with the heat turned up a notch.
You can also place the lid on the pot if they aren’t cooking – this will help trap in the heat and cook them faster! Hopefully this helps for next time! 🙂
Thank you for this delicious recipe, I liked the idea of the veggies in here so I added mushrooms and peas. Made a double batch so I only used 3 cans of biscuits and it is tasty!
This was a great recipe. I cut it down for one person and it has turned out great. Will save this recipe for future use
NOT a 30 minute meal but delicious. I only used half the amount of biscuits and it took almost an hour for this to cook. I would suggest rolling out biscuits so they are super thin. I had rolled them a bit but they still took FOREVER to cook all the way through. Also pay attention to your evaporated milk can. Mine was 12oz which I didn’t notice until I poured it in. I ended up having to add a cornstarch slurry to thicken up the gravy. It was actually super delicious once those darn biscuits finally cooked through!
Delicious! Very easy to make!
how many people does this feed
Hi Jayden! It serves 6 people, or 4 super hungry people if you want extra large servings. The yield amounts are always listed right above the recipe name in the recipe card. Hope this helps!
Absolutely love this recipe my mother is from Pennsylvania and makes this the traditional way and honestly Im not a fan (everyone thinks I’m nuts) but yours is yum.
What I did: I opened my biscuit up and rolled each half flat and then cut them into strips. I also added a couple of bay leaves and some sage to the veggie sauté and cooked everything longer then suggested (20 mins) biscuits were cooked perfectly.
Thanks for this recipe.