How To Make Southern Chicken and Dumplings
Chicken and Dumplings, like most southern food, evolved out of necessity and practicality. Back in the day, chicken was a treat and not something offered or even available on a regular basis. Whenever it was, the chicken was more often than not on the scrawny side.
So you have this woman who has a house full of kids to feed and likely a few guests after word has gotten out that chicken is on the menu, and one scrawny little chicken. This is where flour comes to the rescue yet again! Back in the old days, flour was an affordable staple and bought in twenty five pound sacks. Flour could easily be used to stretch a meager meal so that an entire family would leave the table feeling full and satisfied by making biscuits, dumplings, hoe cake, or an assortment of other improvisational breads and meal stretchers.
This recipe is dedicated to my sister in law’s trainer, Debbie (you owe me Stacey, I just made you sound so hip in that sentence). Debbie’s failed attempts to make dumplings have led her family to formally request that she stop attempting them altogether. Now I’m here to tell you that if Debbie can remain skinny and fit in the land of fried chicken, she can certainly make chicken and dumplings! Stacey has assured her that our family recipe is foolproof and I plan on proving it with this tutorial. I am also going to explain the two instances where Stacey and I managed to screw up this foolproof recipe in our earlier days of cooking so that you can avoid our mistakes and have your perfect pot of dumplings!
Gina, this is for you, too! Gina is a reader who has her hands full with summer heat and two toddlers. When I posted a teaser sentence “Anyone up for chicken and dumplings this week?” at the top of my site, Gina emailed within minutes telling me that she certainly was! Gina, I promise this will be quick and easy enough that you can manage to make it in between calls for “Mama”! After making it once, you won’t even need a recipe!
*I usually stew a whole chicken but today I had boneless skinless breasts and no chicken so this is what we got. Feel free to drop a few chicken bouillon cubes into your water in place of the broth.
Until it looks like this.Be sure you don’t skip this step! If you do, your dumplings will completely dissolve in the broth. That is exactly what I did the very first time I ever made chicken and dumplings after I had gotten married. Of course it didn’t help that I had bragged all day about how good my mama’s dumplings were! I ended up with a delicious dumpling flavored soup!
Lower your heat so that your broth is just barely barely barely boiling and drop these pieces in one at a time. It is important that you DO NOT STIR. We are not going to stir these as we don’t want our dumplings cooking up. If you do stir, you will basically cause your dumplings to dissolve. Stay tuned, I’m going to show you what we will do instead…
You want to keep it on a low boil.
See? Dumplings! Continue simmering it, pushing them down from time to time, while you shred your chicken.
Like this.
Drop your chicken into the dumplings and very gently stir that up. I really just push it down a bit like I did with the dumplings but you are past the point of them being able to cook up by this time anyway. Just be gentle.
Oh I wish you could smell these, I wish you could taste these, I wish you had dumplings on your stove right this very minute!
Remember the eighties Coca Cola commercials …”I’d like to buy the world a coke…”. Forget that! I’d like to feed the world chicken and dumplings! How about we start with you?
Chicken and Dumplings
Ingredients
- 3 or 4 chicken breasts
- 32 oz Chicken Broth (feel free to use water with bouillon cubes added)
- 1 can cream of chicken soup
- 1-10 count can Pilsbury layers biscuits
- salt and pepper to taste
- flour
Instructions
- Cook chicken breasts in approx. 4 c. of water until fork tender, about 45 minutes. Place broth in medium to large sized pot. Stir cream of chicken soup into gently boiling broth. Add salt and pepper to taste. Pull biscuits apart into three layers. Dip each layer into flour and then tear each layer into three pieces and drop into gently boiling broth mixture. Do not stir biscuits a lot, or they will cook up, only gently push dumplings down into broth as they float to the top. Cook about ten minutes after last dumplings are added. Add shredded chicken and turn on low until ready to serve. added, Tear up chicken, add to broth mixture.Turn to low until ready to serve.
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Ingredients
- 3 or 4 chicken breasts
- 32 oz Chicken Broth (feel free to use water with bouillon cubes added)
- 1 can cream of chicken soup
- 1-10 count can Pilsbury layers biscuits
- salt and pepper to taste
- flour
Instructions
- Cook chicken breasts in approx. 4 c. of water until fork tender, about 45 minutes. Place broth in medium to large sized pot. Stir cream of chicken soup into gently boiling broth. Add salt and pepper to taste. Pull biscuits apart into three layers. Dip each layer into flour and then tear each layer into three pieces and drop into gently boiling broth mixture. Do not stir biscuits a lot, or they will cook up, only gently push dumplings down into broth as they float to the top. Cook about ten minutes after last dumplings are added. Add shredded chicken and turn on low until ready to serve. added, Tear up chicken, add to broth mixture.Turn to low until ready to serve.
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Posted by Christy Jordan
on Jul 29 2008. Filed under Chicken, FEATURED Southern Favorites!, Main Course, Southern Classics.
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thanks for your great post
I am completely in love with chickens . But I realize that marriage between man and chickens is considered weird, so I will just keep
raising them on my backyard
I come across this blog looking for copy cat Cracker Barrel Chick and Dumplings and this looks SO delicious!
I was wondering, do you put the broth in the chicken water? I’m looking forward to trying this tonight.
These were yummy tonight. Lots easier than rolling out dumplings.
My family loved this recipe! It was easy and yummy. It’s going into the ‘favorites’ recipe binder.
I just have to say this was great. I have tried for years to make Chicken and dumplings like his Mom made them and been unsucessful. When I saw your pictures, I knew that this was the answer. I did mine just a little difference. I pressure cooked the chicken with the broth, onion, pepper,. Then put the stock in pot and then proceeded as the recipe said.Thanks for such a great recipe.
I made this recipe last night, only had 2 chicken breasts. That was enough chicken meat and I added 1 can of chicken broth to have some extra “sauce”. My hubby really liked the meal. We had enough to split a bowl for lunch today. I will make this again!!!!
I love your site, I love your recipe and I especially love your pictures. I have wanted to cook C&D for 20 years but never had the nerve until I say your pictures. I have since done it twice and my guys are already “telling” or “instructing” me in how to tweet it. Thank you so much!!!!
[...] Tonight my Chicken and Dumplings aired on WAAY TV, channel 31. I thought I’d share it with y’all in case you wanted to see it! You can find the recipe below and if you’d like to see my step by step photo tutorial, you can do that by clicking here. [...]
Your version is so much easier to make than Gramma Ruby’s. I can’t wait to try this! Gramma also did something like this but with really thick homemade noodles. Oh My Gosh! Just thinking about it is making my stomach growl.
Now we can have Chicken and Dumplin’s more often with your easier to make version.
Thanks!
OMG Christy…this is sooooo good (and lets not forget easy)! I hope the fam likes it, if not more for me!!!
Thanks!
Love this recipe and love the pictures. Like having yr mom standing next to you giving you detailed instructions and fool proof commentary! Thank you!
This was the best. I have tried to make chicken and dumplings before but they were a lot of work and were not that good. But these are easy and Yum-O. I couldn’t find the correct biscuits so I got the buttermilk ones and they worked great.
I am excited to try this! I was thinking of adding frozen peas has anyone tried this before? Thank you
Hi Christy! First, let me say that I love your site and am hooked! Everything that I have made so far has turned out great, and made my family think that I am an even better cook than I actually am
With a family of 3 boys, ages 18 months to 12, and any number of friends that may be staying for dinner, I am always on a hunt for recipes that please everyone, which, as you can imagine, is tough. Tonight was my first attempt at chicken and dumplings, and I was a bit sceptical. I even warned the kids that if it didnt turn out,Chef Boy-r-dee would be the backup plan for dinner. Well, the cans of ravioli stayed in the pantry, cause this was an all around hit! My 12 yr old, who would eat chicken nuggets for every meal of the week, ate 2 plates, and my 8 yr old, who said that he did not like chicken and dumplings (with an upturned nose), ate 2 plates also. Thank you thank you thank you! This is a definate keeper in our household.
P.S. The puddin’ poke cake was a huge success too!
These are the best chicken n dumplins! I have made them twice now since last week and absolutely LOVE them. Thank you so much!
Thanks so much for this recipe! I made it tonight and my hubby and 2 year old DD both ate them. Definitely a keeper for our family
I have been craving chicken and dumplings for weeks now and finally decided that during our Colorado blizzard today I was going to make it. Thank you for the great tip on the flour on the biscuits!!! I can’t wait until dinner tonight! : )
I made these last night and my boyfriend was stunned that it was homemade! I don’t cook and vowed this week I would start. He and our boys could not stop raving about it! THANK YOU! PS – I coated the biscuits in wheat flour and flaxseed – adding some healthy stuff in there – and they didn’t even know it
I am very salt sensitive. Do you have a recipe that is from scratch without using the high sodium contents of these ingredients?
I made this last night for supper. We loved it. Soooo good! Thanks for sharing!
Ma’am, thanks for this recipe. I made this for my wife and we enjoyed it very much. I used 3 chicken leg quarters and after cooking in the pot a while, added 3 cups of water to make up the broth. Yes, the flour on the biscuits is the ticket.
Thanks again, Mel and Marie.
(An after thought), we used 4 cups of water for the broth above.
Mel
Tried this recipe. Couldn’t tell these were biscuit dumplings. Tasted like my mom’s homemade when I was a little girl. Thanks for sharing it! I enjoyed it. Followed the recipe step by step…ESPECIALLY the part about NOT stirring the dumplings.
I’ll be making this dish a lot!!
This is so bland… where’s the carrots, the peas, the celery, onions? Also how about you make the dumplings from scratch… you had the flour in the bowl just add milk and a little baking powder and BAM! Dumplings from scratch, they should also be added last to keep them from getting chewy, a dumpling should be gooey on the outside and fluffy on the inside. This recipe does not do “chicken and dumplings” any justice at all.
Hey Shane honey,
You know, the vast majority of folks who read blogs don’t take the time to comment. It’s either because they don’t think to or that commenting is too much trouble, so I really appreciate it very much when folks do take time to comment.
I’ve always wondered, though, at why someone would go to the trouble to comment if they were just going to complain- because it is something I would, personally, never do. My mother didn’t raise me that way and she’d be horrified if I did such a thing no matter how old I got.
Still, I’m glad there are all kinds of good folks in this world, complainers and non, and I’m glad that you can enjoy chicken and dumplings your way and I can enjoy them the way my lovely mother has always made them. I always say , “how your mother made it is the right way”. I would never, in a million years, belittle anyone else’s recipe – especially if they told me it was their mothers. God love you, though.
I wish you the Merriest of Christmases and an abundance of joy in your heart and life.
Gratefully,
Christy
As a 20yr old girl on a budget working full time and without alot of time;this recipe and your whole website are a complete blessing.I’ve got it programmed into my cell under favorites. I’m always excited to see what you put up next.Thanks for being an inspriation
Court
Made them tonight for dinner. My wife and very picky 5 year old loved them as much as I did. It’s been a long time since I had chicken and dumplings this good.
Thank you for this quick easy meal.
Thank you Christy! I never was a big fan of chicken and dumplings but I saw this recipe and figured -hey,I can do this. It was a big hit and I loved them. I have to make them again tomorrow and double the recipe since not everyone got enough.
I have tried all kinds of food from your website and my family is amazed. I actually have food in my house! I haven’t made frozen food in months.
Thanks again, and keep ‘em coming.
Christy I used to think my great grandmother could only make dumplings. She had some kind of secert to make them great till I made my own with your help. O my I couldnt get enough and my husband god help him is from up north and never had dumpling before. Now loves them and braggs bout of great they are.
Love
Janis Mclean
Texas via Virginia
Christy,
Just tried these – OMG! They are great! My husband loves chicken and dumplings and now my boys do too!
Thanks for the great site – it’s a treasure trove of yumminess!
Hugs,
Jamie
K, I tried it and thank you. I did get the wrong cans. It was cream of mushroom soup. Still was excellent.. Thank you. Im not a big kitchen guy, more of a bbq guy. 15 below zero, i was in the mood.
MMMM good!!! I can’t stop eating it…..it so good! This is great and so-o-o- easy! Thanks!
I am looking forward to trying these tonight.
Made these for dinner this evening. Delicious! Thanks for another great recipe.
im going to try this right now if only i can find a can of cream of chicken.lol i hope it turns out good. cause i always end up with really hard dumplings and i dont know why. but your version sounds good.
Thank you so much for such a detailed recipe and photos to go along with it. I always wondered why my dumplings dissolved in the broth and NOW I KNOW thanks to you. I’m going to try them for supper tonight. Thank you again, and Happy New Year 2010!
[...] How To Make Southern Chicken And Dumplings [...]
I love the way you have explained the recipe with pictures and all. Looks great.
This looks good, I already have a chicken as well as the chicken breasts. If I decide to cook it with the stewed chicken, do I discard that broth, or strain it and use it along with the cream of chicken soup.(Does it matter how much water I cook the whole chicken in?) I am excited, as I have had the canned version years ago, and for some reason have been thinking about making this> I think my teenage son will love this!!!
this looks tasty! how many servings does it make? i noticed some people have doubled the recipe.
I tried making these tonight and the buttermilk biscuits turned out too doughy and gooey. The taste of the chicken and sauce were very good but somehow the biscuits ruined the texture. I am not sure what I did wrong.
Hello from Southern Indiana! I’ve been trying to find a good chicken and dumplings recipe to make for my husband (he loves ‘em, I can’t stand them) for 15 years. In that time, I’ve made some pretty bad dumplings, but my husband, God bless him, chokes them down anyway, lol! I found this recipe a couple of weeks ago, and made a small pot the first time. My husband ate the whole pot by himself and asked for it again two days later. I usually triple it and he takes it to work to share – the pot comes home empty that night! He is completely addicted to this recipe. It is so easy, and the taste is unbelievable! I really appreciate the photos, and the advice about not stirring the dumplings is key – I’ve made quite a few dumpling-flavored soups in my time. I never thought of dredging the biscuits in flour to keep them together as well as thicken the gravy, I just kept adding more condensed soup. This is definitely a recipe that has become a staple in our home. I’ve even eaten a few myself, and I must say it’s very good! Thanks so much for sharing this recipe – you’ve helped make my husband quite a happy camper!
P.S. This recipe is even better and easier than a certain Food Network recipe I tried, and it was the simplest one on the website. Needless to say, your blog is now my first stop when searching for recipes! Thanks again!
Ok i have tried c&d plenty before and they all turned out mushy,sweet,salt I want to make this for my husband for valentines day this our first one as a married couple if you have and extra advice please let me know …
Okay…I’ve been looking all over for this exact recipie. I’ve been craving this since I had some at my aunt and uncles hometown. I’m 20 weeks pregnant and the craving is super strong! LOL! I’ve gone through dozens with veggies added. But I don’t think they will taste this good, cause this is exactly what I had in Lometa, TX. I can’t wait to cook this tonight. Have you added veggies to this recipie before? If so, does it change the taste?
Erin D.
I’m a 25 year old bachelor (without a whole lot of cooking experience) and found this meal incredibly easy to make. I threw chopped celery and carrots in to boil with the broth and sauteed some white onion before adding it in as well. Definitely made for some hearty eats.
My Grandma used to make “dumplings” at least once a week, after she passed though, my Mom who doesn’t like dumplings, didn’t make them. So, I haven’t had “dumplings” in years, and I loved them so much as a little girl. We’re talking the mid 70′s, so what a treat to find this super easy, most delicious recipe. Grandma made them from scratch, but Christy your recipe is almost as good as her scratch recipe, and certainly a huge time saver. I made them Friday night, today is Sunday, and Hubby and I are still talking about how great they were. So good in fact I had to subscribe to your site and leave you this comment! Thanks for the great recipe…
I like to read a bunch of recipes and then do my own thing. Thank you for the ‘coating the biscuits in flour and NOT stirring’ tip. I usually end up with dumpling flavored chicken soup. I’m making chicken and stuffed dumplings tonight…basically your recipe except i’m using a whole chicken, cream of celery and cream of chicken soup and stuffing some celery, bell pepper and green onions into the biscuits before i drop them in, oh AND coating them with flour….hope it turns out.
Thanks for the recipe – I just bought four cans of “Jumbo Flaky Biscuits” from the grocery store for a quarter a piece (they expire in a week), and I wasn’t exactly sure what I was going to do with all of them. Well, this is a start anyway!
Going to try this in my crock pot and I think I will be adding peas and carrots to the mix. My co-workers are going to be jealous! Ha!
This looks so *so* good, but I’m in England, and don’t have Pilsbury biscuits available. I do believe we have various flaky pastry mixes available…will they do or so I need a seperate recipe for dumplings?
Never mind! Have read the above comments (I’m a plonker) and discovered that we can use the buttermilk biscuits recipe.
yes, any type of biscuits will work just fine. :0)
I made this for my family tonight. It was great! I think I will keep it the same but add a few carrots and celery next time. Thanks for the quick and easy!
I use pizza dough for my dumplings I roll it out and sprinkle a little salt on top, brush with egg wash, flour and drop in the pot and they are awesome. I ‘ve never tried biscuits i’ll have to try it next time.