Chicken and Dumplings.
The quintessential winter comfort food.
And formerly one of our favorite meals to dine on back in the day when we used to eat at restaurants.
Back in the day, before my chicken and dumplings- the very recipe I’m going to share today- was unanimously declared to be BETTER than the restaurant version (and less expensive too!)
Not to mention that since it’s made from scratch in my own kitchen, I have complete quality control and so when I feed Chicken and Dumplings to my family, I know exactly what went into it and just how nourishing it is to their bodies. It’s all part of my job to steward their health to the best of my ability. A responsibility I take seriously.
This recipe, like with my homemade chicken soup, is a labor of love and takes most of the day to build layers of flavor. But it is well worth the effort!
I use a whole chicken (and a handful of chicken feet) along with a splash of acid so that the broth is full of goodness extracted from the bones. You don’t have to use chicken feet- I’m sure most people won’t. But they do give the broth a nutritional boost and are an excellent way of making the most of your meat if you happen to grow your own chicken like I do.
By cooking the chicken in the broth and building that flavor, you’ll also end up with a meltingly tender and delicious chicken that literally falls right off the bone. It’s not often that I go unnoticed while picking a chicken and don’t have my children crowding around begging for a sample!
Nor is it often that I don’t have to dish up seconds before dinnertime is through.
I hope your family will enjoy this meal just as much as mine does!
Homestyle Chicken and Dumplings
Homestyle Chicken & Dumplings
Ingredients
- whole roasting chicken
- 5 chicken feet (optional)
- 1 onion, quartered
- cloves of garlic, diced or smashed
- 2 bay leaves
- salt & pepper
- splash of lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, or whey
- 5 stalks celery, diced
- Homemade Cream of Chicken Soup , as a thickener
- Dumplings:
- 3 cups flour (Gluten-free? Maybe try this gluten-free all-purpose flour .)
- ¾ teaspoons baking powder
- ¾ teaspoons salt
- 2 ½ Tablespoons lard
- 2 ½ Tablespoons butter
- 1 cup whole milk
Instructions
- In a stockpot, combine the chicken, feet if using, onion, garlic, bay, lemon juice, and seasonings. Cover with water and allow to simmer down for several hours until the chicken is cooked and falling off of the bone.
- Remove the chicken and strain the broth. I place a large colander over a bowl and dump the whole pot into the colander then return the broth in the bowl to the stockpot.
- While the chicken is cooling down enough to pick the meat from the bones, add the diced celery and prepare the cream of chicken soup.
- Stir in the cream of chicken soup and and cooked, picked chicken meat to the broth and allow it to slowly simmer and thicken up a bit while you prepare the dumplings.
- For the dumplings, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Cut in the fat.
- Stir in the milk until a very soft and sticky dough forms.
- Turn it out on a well floured surface and roll the dough to paper thin (adding more flour as necessary to make the dough manageable).
- Allow the dough to rest for 10 minutes.
- Cut into 1-2" squares with a pizza cutter or knife and then allow the dumplings to rest and harden for about 30 minutes. (Do not omit this step or they will somewhat disintegrate when you add them to the broth making for fewer dumplings and a starchier broth.)
- After the hardening period, add the dumplings to the stock pot, tearing any large ones in two.
- Do not stir them into the broth, but rather swirl the pot a bit to bring the broth over the top of the dumplings.
- Cook for about 7-10 minutes after adding in the last dumpling.
Did you make a recipe?
Tag @reformationacres on Instagram and hashtag it #reformationacres.
Enjoy!
Kate Schat says
7 December, 2013 atI've never had chicken and dumplings! You NEVER see it here in Canada. Maybe I'll have to try making it…??
Heather Hansen says
9 December, 2013 atThis looks really good. I make my own organic chicken stock in the slow cooker….and the meat is just fall off the bone yummy 🙂 🙂
Barbara Thompson says
13 December, 2013 atOften, when you look up "dumplings" you get a recipe for sort of a drop biscuit. My mom called this kind "slickers" to differentiate. They are my all time favorite.
Isabella Baldwin says
1 December, 2015 atAny recipe that uses a can of "condensed 'cream of' soup" is a no-go in my books.
Reformation Acres says
2 December, 2015 atMe too! We've been canned-soup-free for nearly a decade. That's why my recipe calls for "Homemade Cream of Chicken Soup." (Basically, you ladle out some of the stock from the soup you started, add milk, spices, and flour; boil to thicken it; and then add it back into the Chicken & Dumplings.) The Cream of Chicken Soup I use isn't my recipe so I wanted to link back to it to give credit instead of adding it in here. This meal is fresh on my mind & in my belly- my daughter's 9th birthday was yesterday and this was her dinner request 😉 It's SO good- you've got to try it!
Isabella Baldwin says
10 December, 2015 atReformation Acres Hi, sorry I can't believe I misread the recipe. I'm just so sick of recipes that use canned condensed soups!! I didn't notice it said 'homemade'! Thank-you for being classy with your response! I look forward to trying the recipe! Thanks!
Anna Gornall says
1 March, 2016 atWhere is the recipe for the homemade cream of chicken soup?
Quinn Veon says
3 March, 2016 atI use this one here: http://www.tammysrecipes.com/homemade_cream_chicken_soup
Denise says
6 July, 2017 atCan you use something other than lard? I have a very picky eater in the house. She won’t knowingly eat anything with lard in it
Quinn says
5 August, 2017 atI would just use all butter in that case.