I made crock pot friendly creamy chicken and dumpling soup, with homemade dumplings made from scratch. It's a healthy 30-minute dinner and perfect fall and winter soup recipe!
This soup is different from Healthy Chicken Gnocchi Soup since it has homemade fluffy dumplings cooked on top of it, but it is amazing and takes half an hour from prep to table. No need to chop up your veggies (you can if you want), I use frozen veggies to make it a quick weeknight dinner.
This is a heartier version of southern easy chicken and dumplings than is found in most restaurants, which (when I've had it) is usually a chicken and gravy situation with noodle like dumplings served with it.
Dumplings are, by definition, a mass of dough boiled fried or steamed. That doesn't say noodles to me. I prefer a veggie chicken stew with fluffy homemade dumplings on top that look like biscuits.
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What To Expect, Why it's the Best
- Taste: A savory, creamy chicken stew with veggies and soft dumplings cooked onto the top.
- Ease: This recipe is beginner/intermediate. The soup is easy with frozen veggies, and the dumplings can be tricky to get right but are easy to correct if undercooked!
- Time: 30-40 minutes is all it takes to get chicken stew with dumplings on the table.
🛒 Key Ingredients
- Chicken - chicken breasts or chicken thighs work well for this recipe, they are both juicy and flavorful.
- Vegetables - I use frozen mixed veggies to make prep work easy, but chopped fresh veggies would be fine as well!
- Milk - I like the added protein in milk, as well as how creamy it makes the soup.
- Flour - I use all purpose flour as a thickener in the soup as well as the dough for the homemade dumplings.
- Seasonings- I use a simple mix of garlic, onion, parsley and basil. Salt & pepper are given, and I added a little chicken bouillon to add a little more flavor.
See the recipe card below for full information on ingredients and quantities.
✏️ Substitutions & Variations
- Veggies - the frozen veggies can be substituted with an equal amount of chopped carrots, celery, corn, peas, green beans, any fresh veggies you want! We like to dice up butternut squash, parsnips, or turnips and replace some of the veggies for a fall vegetable soup.
- Milk - replace with your favorite plant based milk.
- Flour in soup - can be replaced with half the amount of cornstarch.
🧑🍳 Instructions
- Step 1. In a large cooking pot (preferably one with a heavy bottom like a dutch oven), heat olive oil and add chicken and onion. Saute over medium heat for 5-7 minutes, until chicken is cooked through and onions are soft, stirring occasionally.
- Step 2. Add chicken broth, garlic & onion powder, parsley, basil, salt, pepper, chicken bouillon and frozen vegetables (no need to thaw first). Simmer for about 5 minutes.
- Step 3. Meanwhile, in a separate medium mixing bowl whisk together milk and flour until smooth and there are no lumps left.
- Step 4. Slowly pour into simmering stew, stirring constantly. Let simmer for 5 minutes, stirring until thickened.
- Step 5. In a medium mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt (above left image) Stir in the milk and mix until just combined (above right image), and all the flour pockets are gone. Try to avoid mixing over and over again or the dumplings may turn out chewy and tough.
- Step 6. Turn heat to medium heat and give the stew a good stir to help prevent scorching on the bottom. Wait until the stew is at a medium boil, then use a Tablespoon (I use a 1 Tablespoon cookie scoop), to spoon dumpling dough into the boiling stew until the surface of the stew is covered in balls of dough.
- Step 7. Cover the chicken stew and dumplings with lid and cook for 8-9 minutes. Remove lid and test a dumpling with a fork. If it is still doughy, cover and cook for another 1-2 minutes. The inside will look like the inside of cooked bread when they are finished. Serve hot and enjoy!
📌 Top Tips & Hacks
- Don't overmix the dumpling dough. It's an easy dumpling recipe, but overmixing makes it tough and can make the dumplings rubbery after they cook.
- Grease the cookie scoop or Tablespoon with baking spray before scooping dumpling dough to make it easier to remove them!
- Don't make the dumplings too big! They take longer too cook the larger they are. It's better to make 25is smaller sized ones.
- Bring the stew to a gentle boil and give it a good stir before you begin putting dumpling dough in! If the stew isn't at least simmering the dough sometimes drops to the bottom and becomes hard little dough lumpies.
- Cover with a lid when you cook the dumplings and DON'T PEEK until 8 minutes is up. Otherwise, the dumplings can deflate and be doughy because of lost heat during the cooking process.
❓Frequently Asked Questions
Refrigerate: up to 4 days.
Freeze: up to 3 months. Thaw in fridge overnight before reheating.
Add more seasoning! My favorite options are adding a little more garlic, salt, or pepper. Before adding raw dumplings to the stew, taste it and see if you need more of any seasoning.
They haven't cooked long enough! Here are some ways to prevent raw or undercooked dumplings.
1. Make sure the soup is bubbling before putting the raw dumplings on top.
2. Immediately put a lid over the dumplings to cook.
3. Set a timer! 8-9 minutes.
4. Don't peek! Don't lift the lid until the timer goes off. Then you can test a dumpling with a fork.
Once the milk and flour are added to thicken the soup, you need to make sure to stir it occasionally to prevent burning.
1. Make sure you give the soup a good stir before putting on the raw dumplings, especially the bottom of the pot.
2. Don't turn the heat all the way on high. Set it to low/medium so the soup is bubbling gently, not violently while the lid is on the pot cooking the dumplings.
Yes! It's super easy to make in the slow cooker, just like my Slow Cooker Vegetable Beef Stew.
1. Mix all the soup and thickening ingredients into a crock-pot and cook on high for 4 hours.
2. After 4 hours, mix together the dumpling dough and cook on high for another hour until dumplings are cooked through.
🥣 More Delicious Soup Recipes
Did You Try This Recipe? ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Make sure to leave a star rating and a comment below the recipe card. I love hearing from you, and it is so helpful to other readers! Better yet, share it with family and friends. Thank you!!
📝 Printable Recipe
Creamy Chicken and Dumplings
Equipment
Ingredients
For the stew:
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- 1 lb raw chicken, about 2 medium breasts (about 3 cups chopped)
- ½ onion, diced about ½ cup, 65 g
- 2 cups chicken broth 275 mL
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon dried parsley
- ½ teaspoon dried basil
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground pepper
- 2 teaspoons chicken bouillon
- 4 cups frozen mixed vegetables (I use peas, corn, carrots, and green beans)
For the thickening mixture:
- 2-½ cups milk 600 mL
- ½ cup all-purpose flour 63 g
For the dumplings:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour 260 g
- 1 Tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup milk 235 mL
Instructions
For the stew:
- In a large cooking pot, heat olive oil and add chicken and onion. Saute over medium heat for 5-7 minutes, until chicken is cooked through and onions are soft, stirring occasionally.
- Add chicken broth, garlic & onion powder, parsley, basil, salt, pepper, chicken bouillon and vegetables. Simmer for about 5 minutes.
For the thickening mixture:
- Meanwhile, in a separate medium mixing bowl whisk together milk and flour. Slowly pour into simmering stew, stirring constantly. Let simmer for 5 minutes.
For the Dumplings:
- In the medium mixing bowl used for the thickening mixture (less dishes) combine flour, baking powder and salt. Stir in the milk and mix until just combined. Don't overmix.
- Turn heat to medium heat and give the stew a good stir. Wait until the stew is at a medium boil. Using a Tablespoon as a measure (I use a 1 Tablespoon cookie scoop), spoon dumpling dough into the boiling stew until the surface of the stew is covered in balls of dough.
- Cover stew and dumplings with lid and cook for 8-9 minutes. Remove lid and test a dumpling with a fork. If it is still doughy, cover and cook for another 1-2 minutes.
Melissa says
I admit that this recipe is probably good for most people, but I found it a bit bland, and personally I prefer the dumpling style of say, Cracker Barrel, which is more noodle/gnocchi-like than the biscuit-like dumplings of this recipe. Family ate it, but I won't be keeping it.
Elizabeth Hicks says
Hi, when you are boiling the dumplings at the end for 5-7 minutes, do you ever have any trouble with the milk scorching on the bottom of your pot? I love your blogs! I just stumbled across your recipes! I’m a registered nurse too 🙂
Sara says
Hey Elizabeth, it’s happened a couple of times when I left the heat on a little too long and when I was slower getting the dumplings in. I’m glad you mentioned it because I’ve made this recipe so long sometimes I forget that timing is different when you make it for the first few times! I like to make the dumplings into balls as the stew is cooking so they’re all ready to go in quickly so the bottom doesn’t cook too long at a high heat. You can also try to give the stew a good stir riiiight before you spoon the dumplings on top and cover to cook. Pots with thinner bottoms ( I use a thick cast iron pot) could scorch easier so it might help the be at a gentle boil before covering instead of a rapid boil.
And nice! This is a CRAZY time to be a nurse. I bet you have some great stories!