This easy chicken and dumplings recipe is a comforting and hearty meal that is ready in just 30 minutes! With tender dumplings, flavorful rotisserie chicken, and a rich, creamy broth, it’s the perfect dish for busy weeknights. This easy version of the classic Southern favorite brings all the cozy flavors of a home-cooked meal without the long cooking time.
Why I Love This Creamy & Comforting Soup
Chicken and dumplings have always been my favorite dinner from childhood. Growing up, it was the ultimate comfort food that my mom would make on chilly evenings. If I have the time, I usually make my homemade chicken and dumplings from scratch. However, this is my go-to version when I have a craving, but am short on time. Here’s why I think you are going to love it too:
- Quick and Easy: This easy chicken and dumplings recipe is perfect for beginning and seasoned cooks alike. Follow the simple steps and in just 30 minutes, you will have a bowl full of comfort!
- One-Pot: This easy version uses canned biscuits for the dumplings and canned cream of chicken as the gravy base. Made all in one pot, cleanup couldn’t be any easier!
- Hearty: With lots of chicken, root vegetables, and fluffy dumplings, this is absolutely a complete meal all on its own.
- Crowd Favorite: Loved by both kids and adults, it’s an easy go-to family dinner! Double the recipe and you can easily feed a crowd!
Key Ingredients
With a 30 minute goal in mind, plan on using a few readily available shortcuts. Below you will find helpful notes for key ingredients used to make this easy chicken and dumplings recipe with biscuits. Scroll down to the recipe card below for the full ingredient list and exact amounts!
- Chicken: You need 3 cups of chopped or shredded, cooked chicken. Use rotisserie, canned, frozen precooked, or leftover chicken. You can easily make your own shredded chicken using chicken thighs, boneless skinless chicken breasts or a whole chicken.
- Evaporated Milk: Canned evaporated milk is the secret weapon in this dish. Thick, rich and lower in fat than heavy cream, this inexpensive, shelf stable ingredient makes the creamiest chicken and dumplings.
- 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: Choose refrigerated biscuit dough, cut into fourths and then tossed in flour to prevent them from sticking. Canned biscuits are a quick and easy swap for time consuming handmade dumplings from scratch.
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How to Make 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! Below is a quick recipe overview, but please scroll to the recipe card at the bottom of this post for full instructions and to watch the step-by-step video.
- Sauté: In a large pot, melt the butter. Add the vegetables and garlic and sauté until tender.
- Simmer: Add chicken, broth, milk, and soup to vegetable mixture. Bring to a simmer. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Add Biscuits: Cut each of the canned biscuits into 4 pieces and toss in flour to coat. Add to the chicken soup mixture and cook until dough is cooked through. Press the dumplings below the broth and break them apart as needed, as they cook.
- Enjoy: Once the dumplings are cooked through, serve immediately!
Chef’s Tips and Variations
- Dumplings: 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.
- 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.
- Flour: Don’t skip tossing the cut biscuits in all-purpose flour as this prevents sticking. It also thickens the gravy base too.
- Time: Add the dumplings and adhere to the cook time before serving. The dumplings will disappear if left to simmer too long.
- Herbs: Add a large pinch of dried poultry seasoning to the gravy, if you have it. The mixture of thyme, sage, rosemary and nutmeg provide an easy way to amp up the flavor a little. You can also throw in a bay leaf or thyme.
- Crockpot: Let the slow cooker do the work with this crock pot chicken and dumplings (with homemade dumplings) or easy slow cooker chicken and dumplings (with canned biscuits). You also may enjoy my instant pot chicken and dumplings!
Yield: 6 servings
Easy Chicken and Dumplings with Biscuits
Need Chicken and Dumplings fast? This deliciously creamy and easy Chicken And Dumplings recipe is made with canned biscuits in just 30 minutes! With tender chicken and fluffy dumplings, in a rich and creamy broth, it's a comforting meal the whole family will love.
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!
Notes
Leftovers Storage: While best served fresh, you can save the leftovers! Cool to room temperature and store chicken and dumplings in an airtight container for up to 3 days. For best results, I recommend removing dumplings and storing them separately from the soup as they tend to soak up all the broth. When reheating, add a little more broth to loosen it up again, if desired.
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Nutrition
Serving: 1serving, Calories: 566kcal, Carbohydrates: 52g, Protein: 28g, Fat: 27g, Saturated Fat: 8g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 7g, Monounsaturated Fat: 10g, Trans Fat: 0.2g, Cholesterol: 82mg, Sodium: 1.879mg, Potassium: 579mg, Fiber: 2g, Sugar: 9g, Vitamin A: 1.808IU, Vitamin C: 3mg, Calcium: 172mg, Iron: 4mg
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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!
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.
This recipe was so easy & delicious.Leftover chicken & canned biscuits no problem anymore.Thank you for such a easy recipe.
Great recipe, I am a NC gal, southern for sure. Momma never put the veggies in hers so I am not used to that, didn’t put them in and only used 1 can of biscuits and about 32 oz of chicken broth. They came out delicious, family loved them so I will make again.
I loved my Mom’s Chicken and dumplings so much. I just can’t perfect her Bisquick. I believe this recipe seems simple and delicious. I will certainly give it a try
This was absolutely delicious!! I did need to make some changes with what I had on hand. I only had 32 oz of chicken broth so I added the whole 12 oz can of evaporated milk. Didn’t have cream of mushroom soup but had some leftover kale pesto with white cheddar pasta sauce ( Sonoma brand. ) I made a rue with cornstarch and some of the sauce. Used a deep 12″ skillet which fit the biscuits perfectly but only 1 can of Grands.