Quick Comfort Food: Chicken & Dumplings

Does anyone else feel like the last week was actually two months? Same. For What to Eat Wednesdays this week, we thought about giving you a recipe for fancy New Year’s Eve appetizers, or lay out a Feast of Seven Fishes menu for you. But then we decided- let’s do easy. Moms deserve easy this week! 

Here is a recipe that is a big hit at my house- Chicken & Dumplings. Even the pickiest of my kids had seconds of this one. It’s pretty easy to begin with, but we hacked it to give you options to make it even easier! Choose your own adventure with this recipe and enjoy a comforting, warm kid-pleaser this week while you’re all huddled together this week! If you have time and energy for slow food, choose Option 1. For the quicker hacks, choose Option 2…or mix and match!

Chicken & Dumplings

Serves 6. Adapted from recipe featured on Two Peas & their Pod blog. 

Step 1: Make the broth and cook the chicken (two ways):

Option 1: 

Option 1: 

4 lbs bone-in skin-on chicken parts

Salt & pepper

4 Tablespoons vegetable oil

1 bay leaf

2 sprigs fresh thyme

½ tsp dried rosemary

3 Tablespoons butter

1 onion, diced 

3 carrots, diced

3 stalks of celery, diced

¼ cup flour

1 large potato, peeled and diced

¼ cup heavy cream (optional)

1. Pat the chicken dry, season with salt and pepper. Heat 2 Tablespoons of the oil in a Dutch oven over medium high heat. Brown the chicken on all sides, working in batches if necessary to avoid crowding the pan. Deglaze the pan with a splash of water and scrape the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. 
2. Return all the chicken to the pan. Add 8 cups of water, and the bay leaf, thyme, rosemary, and 1 Tablespoon salt. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour. 
3. After 1 hour, strain the broth into a large bowl, discarding the bay leaf and thyme sprigs. 

Let chicken cool slightly and then pick the meat off the bones and set aside. Discard bones and skin. 

4. In the same Dutch oven, add 2 Tablespoons oil and 3 Tablespoons of butter (medium high heat). Add the onion, carrot, and celery until carrots begin to soften, about 6-10 minutes. Add the flour and stir until all the flour has been absorbed and begins to darken, about 5 minutes. Add the strained broth gradually, then add the chicken meat and potato. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until the broth thickens, about 20 minutes. Stir in the cream, if using. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Option 2:

Making your own chicken broth is rewarding…but sometimes you don’t have time for that. Here is our hack using cooked chicken and prepared broth. 

1 Rotisserie chicken 

8 cups chicken bone broth (or chicken broth/stock, if you can’t find bone broth)

Salt & pepper

2 Tablespoons vegetable oil

3 Tablespoons butter

1 onion, diced 

3 carrots, diced

3 stalks of celery, diced

¼ cup flour

1 large potato, peeled and diced

¼ cup heavy cream (optional)

1. In a Dutch oven, add 2 Tablespoons oil and 3 Tablespoons of butter (medium high heat). Add the onion, carrot, and celery until carrots begin to soften, about 6-10 minutes. While the vegetables cook, pick the meat off of the rotisserie chicken. 
2. Add the flour and stir until all the flour has been absorbed and begins to darken, about 5 minutes. Add the broth gradually, then add the chicken meat and potato. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until the broth thickens, about 20 minutes. Stir in the cream, if using. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Step 2: Dumplings (two ways).

Option 1

1 egg

3 Tablespoons milk

2 Tablespoons butter, melted

1 cup flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

4 teaspoon salt

1. While broth simmers, make the dumpling dough: Whisk the egg, milk and melted butter in a small bowl. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. 
2. Pour the wet mix into the flour mix, stir gently with a silicone spatula or fork. Be careful not to overmix. If the mix seems dry, add an extra splash of milk. The batter will be thick. Drop dough by spoonful into the soup. Cover and cook until the dumplings are cooked through, about 15 minutes. 

Option 2

What is a “dumpling” besides a biscuit with a cute name? As such, here is the hack:

Your favorite biscuit dough mix or 1 can biscuit dough

1. Follow package instructions to make the biscuit dough or open the canned biscuits. 
2. Drop by spoonful into the simmering broth. If using canned dough, consider using kitchen shears to cut the dough rounds into quarters. Timing for this method may depend on your biscuit mix, so check the dumplings after 15 minutes. If dough is raw inside, add 5 minutes cook time and check again, repeat as needed.