Easy Homemade Chicken and Dumplings From Scratch

Savor the warmth of our homemade chicken and dumpling soup—a comforting blend of veggies, bone broth, and fluffy dumplings. Ideal for cozying up on chilly nights!

Homemade chicken and dumplings is one of my all time favorite soups. It’s the ultimate comfort food in our house when anyone is feeling a little under the weather. The fluffy dumplings are so satisfying and the I love to use homemade bone broth, for more nourishing ingredients.

I prefer to make this soup the old-fashioned way, boiling down a whole chicken and letting the stock simmer on the stove all day long. However, if you’re a little short on time there I have a few shortcuts you can take and still end up with this delicious meal.

This will be sure to be a meal the whole family loves and requests all winter long!

Ingredients

This family favorite chicken and dumplings recipe is full of comforting ingredients.

• Chicken: This recipe uses a whole chicken.
• Bone Broth: Once the chicken is cooked and deboned, you can throw the carcass back in the stock to continue breaking down all of the good collagen and minerals for a richer flavored broth.
• Onion, Carrots & Celery: Diced veggies will go in the final soup, when making the stock just quarter them up.
• Garlic Cloves
• Bay leaves, Parsley, and Sage: Fresh or dried herbs.
• Salt & Pepper
• Frozen Peas
• Frozen Corn

Homemade Dumplings:

• All Purpose Flour
• Salted Butter
• Baking Powder & Salt
• Whole Milk or Buttermilk

Instructions

Cook the Chicken

1. To make the chicken in dumplings you’ll first need to boil the chicken and make the broth. To do this, place a whole chicken in a large dutch oven or stock pot. Season with salt and pepper.
2. Tuck the quartered onions, carrots, celery stalks, and garlic cloves around the chicken. Place the herbs on the vegetables. Then cover with 8 cups of water.
3. Bring to a boil on medium-high heat, then simmer covered for 1 hour, until the chicken is fully cooked.
4. Once cooked, carefully remove the chicken from the pot and place in a separate bowl to cool and debone.

Make the Bone Broth

1. After the chicken has been deboned, put the carcass back into the pot of chicken broth. Continue to simmer on low for 45min-1 hour.
2. Using a colander, strain the carcass and solids from the chicken stock and pour the bone broth back into the pot.

Make the Chicken and Dumpling Soup

1. Add the shredded chicken, diced vegetables, and frozen vegetables to the broth. Bring to a gentle simmer.
2. Meanwhile, begin making the dumplings. In a medium bowl mix together the dry ingredients: flour, salt, and baking powder.
3. With a pastry cutter, cut in the butter. Then slowly pour in the milk, gently stirring to combine. If the biscuit dough seems too sticky and wet, add extra flour a tsp. at a time.
4. Drop the dumpling dough onto the boiling soup. Cook for 10 minutes uncovered and then 10 minutes covered. This is key!
5. If you have any leftovers, allow the soup to cool then store in an airtight container. The soup will last 5 days in the refrigerator.

Tips and Variations

If you are short on time, an easy chicken hack is to use a store-bought rotisserie chicken. Simply debone it and save the cooked chicken for the soup. Then use the carcass to make the savory broth.

To ensure tender dumplings, make sure you cook the dumplings uncovered for 10 minutes then covered for an additional 10. This is a really important step! If they’re covered the full 20 minutes, you’ll end up with flat dumplings.

If you loved this recipe, check out these other chicken dishes

This Creamy Tuscan soup is another perfect for chilly nights!

This delicious Spatchcock Chicken!

Cheers, Rose!