Actually Yummy Chicken and Dumplings

I have a love-hate relationship with Chicken and Dumplings. I remember going to a friend of my Mom’s house and having it there, asking what it was and LOVING it. Every time we go to Cracker Barrel I order it, completely forgetting that I don’t really like their version, nor do I like their Chicken Pot Pie. Why? The dumplings are horrible. My Dad taught me a super-easy way to make chicken and dumplings, where the dumplings are essentially Pilsbury biscuits torn up real small, so it was with trepidation that I set out to make this chicken and dumplings recipe, but it’s now part of our tried and true recipes.

My easy chicken and dumplings recipe

All right, so I was reading the original recipe, and have realized that now I basically make a completely different recipe, the only thing that’s the same are the dumplings. So, I’m leaving the original version down below, and a link to the original recipe, but here is what I do to make this:

chicken and dumplings ingredients

about 2 cups of cooked chicken diced (whenever I bake a whole chicken I cut up the leftovers and freeze them in storage bags, so about 1-quart bag)

• 3 jars of chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 celery stalk diced (it adds flavor, even if I don’t like cooked celery)
• 1 diced onion
• 1-2 carrots chopped (again, I don’t like them cooked, but they add great flavor)
• 2-3 cloves of garlic diced
• 1-2 teaspoons of chicken soup mix (I kind of just add a heaping soup spoonful or so)*

*so, apparently this is specific to HEB, so if you don’t have an HEB add: 1/4 teaspoon turmeric, 1/2 teaspoon parsley, and another clove of garlic, and some chicken bouillon 

Dumpling ingredients

• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1 tablespoon of butter
• 1/2 cup milk

Making the chicken and dumplings

Add in all the soup ingredients and let that come to a boil and then turn down to a simmer for 10-15 minutes.

While that is going on.

Cut the butter into the flour/baking powder/salt mixture. Then mix in the milk. Then tear the dough into small bite-size pieces (yes I am that lazy and just tear chunks off), and drop them into the boiling soup.

Put the lid on the pot and turn it down just enough so it stays boiling, but not so high it boils over. Leave the lid on and let it boil for 10 minutes. This is the key to amazing dumplings. Boiling with the lid on.

Now serve your delicious chicken and dumplings. That’s it.

Actually Yummy Chicken and Dumplings

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Quick and simple chicken and dumpling recipe to make at home for your family.

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Total Time 45 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 cups of chopped cooked chicken
• 1 onion chopped
• 1 stalk of celery diced
• 1-2 carrots diced
• 2-3 cloves garlic minced
• 6-8 cups of chicken broth
• For dumplings
• 1 1/4 cup of flour
• 1 tablespoon of butter
• 1/2 cup of milk

Instructions

1. Put all ingredients for the soup (except dumpling ingredients) into the pot and bring to a boil. Once it is boiling lower to a simmer and leave simmering for about 15 minutes.
2. While the soup is simmering, make the dumplings.
3. Mix the flour, baking powder, and garlic salt together.
4. Cut the butter into the flour mixture. Then mix in the milk.
5. Slowly tear off bite-size pieces of the dumpling dough and drop into the soup.
6. Return to boil and put the lid on the pot for 10 minutes.
7. Serve

CHICKEN AND DUMPLINGS

Someday I will learn how to change the font size. Not today, I’ll add that to my list of things to do after Halloween, which is coming WAY tooo fast.

Ingredients
1 small chicken cut up (I didn’t notice the small part and got the biggest I could find)
1.5 cups water (I added another cup, see big chicken above, and it wasn’t going to make anywhere near enough broth)
1t salt
1/2 celery stalk, diced (don’t like celery cooked, left it out)
1C flour (I didn’t see where this got added, so I never did)
1/4C chopped onion (I used 1/2 of a large onion, so more than 1/4 C)
oh and I added some poultry seasoning, it seemed like it needed some seasoning.

Dumplings:
1C flour (I added another 1/4C, because it was way too sticky, even then it was borderline)
1t baking powder
3/4 t salt

1 tablespoon butter or shortening
1/2 C skim milk

Chicken Directions:

1. Place chicken in stockpot, along with the water, salt celery, and onion. Simmer over low heat until chicken is fully cooked.

2. Increase heat to bring chicken mixture to boil.

2b. At this point I noticed you are never deboning the chicken, and I was kind of thinking having random huge chunks of chicken just sounds gross. So, I took the pieces out and shredded them. I did NOT end up returning all of the chicken back to the pot, it would have totally overwhelmed the broth.

3. Add dumplings and boil for 8 to 10 minutes (we did 10 minutes).

Dumplings

1. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Cut in the shortening.

2. Add milk to make a stiff dough and knead until it’s all mixed together.

3. (This is where I just ignored it, and dumped in small blobs) Roll out the dough to 1/8 inch thick and cut into diamond and rectangle shapes that you drop into the soup.
Seriously? Diamond and rectangle shapes that are 1-inch thick. That seems like ridiculously a lot of work.

RESULT

Jeff and I loved it, we both got seconds. The dumplings were actually yummy. The kids complained it was too hot and added about 10 ice cubes to their dinky little bowls. Then they complained it was too cold. I don’t know what was up with that.

As far as the actual recipe goes…… Here’s my problems with it:

1. I think they should have added some spices.
2. Nowhere near enough broth, I love broth, and probably if left to me would have added still more.
3. Why the heck aren’t you removing the bones? I think that’s an oversight on the recipe’s part. Really, who wants to get their bowl of soup and get a whole chicken breast bones and all.

Oh, and as a side comment, I was very tempted to call the kids over for them to see the different guts that were included, but thought that might have been a bit much…..

Go check out other yummy recipes over at I Blame My Mother.

And if you’re still here, try out a few more recipes

• Maltese Sesame bread
• Andorran Chicken Cucilo
• Crispy Chicken bites
• Earl Grey Shortbread recipes
• Zuppa Tuscana