Slow Cooker Chicken and Dumplings Recipe

I’ve been trying to successfully make chicken and dumplings for years. It’s either overwhelmed with chicken, the dumplings soak up all the broth, or the recipe turns out more like chicken soup than chicken and dumplings. Finally, I found a recipe that does the cooking for me. I chop, stir, let it sit for a few hours and I have one of my favorite meals. There’s essentially zero ways for anyone to mess this up.

Chicken and dumplings pairs moist, fall-apart chicken with soft, broth-soaked dumplings. With light touches of veggies, this recipe will warm your heart after a break-up or melt the ice on your snowboard boots. It fills your belly fast while fulfilling the needs of every major food group. And you let your slow cooker do all the work.

The very first time I made this recipe the chicken came out extremely tender (most of the chicken was already broken into bite-sized pieces and I could break the rest up in the slower cooker with a wooden spoon) and the broth thickened up to a perfect consistency. The dumplings were cooked all the way through yet were very tender and soaked up the broth like good little dumplings do.

If you’ve been struggling to find an awesome chicken and dumplings recipe or are tired of the chicken soup-style, this recipe will make the thick-broth, ultra-tender, creamy, and delectable chicken and dumplings you’ve been searching for.

Prep Time:20 minutes

Cook Time:About 6 hours

Servings: 4-6

Ingredients:

• 4-5 boneless skinless chicken breasts (you can use chicken thighs if you prefer)
• ½ onion chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic chopped (I like using the entire knob but I’m obsessed with garlic)
• 3 stalks of celery chopped
• 3 medium-sized carrots cut into coins
• 2 cans of cream of chicken soup
• 1 tablespoon of pepper (I like using course ground pepper)
• 3-4 cups of chicken broth (a helpful tip: the entire 32oz Swanson Chicken Broth is 4 cups)
• 1 can of biscuits (8 biscuits)
• ¼ cup of flour for dusting (I prefer whole wheat because it thickens the broth more than all purpose)

Cook it: 

• Chop the onion, garlic, celery, and carrots and place in a bowl
• Cut off any excess fat on the chicken breasts
• Place the chicken breasts on the bottom of the slow cooker (If you’re in a hurry, you can use frozen chicken breasts or thighs; they’ll cook all the way through in 6 hours.)
• Pour the onion, garlic, celery, and carrots on top of the chicken
• Add both cans of the cream of chicken soup
• Add the tablespoon of pepper
• Pour the chicken broth over the rest of the ingredients in the slow cooker and stir until completely mixed
• Set slow cooker to high and cook for 5 hours
• After 5 hours is complete, dust a cutting board with flour and take the biscuits out of the can
• Cut each biscuit in half and then each half into thirds
• Dust all biscuit pieces with flour, add to the slow cooker, and stir (the flour on the biscuits helps to thicken the broth)
• Cook for an additional 45-60 minutes on high or until the biscuit dumplings are cooked all the way through
• Serve in bowls and get ready to scarf down!

You don’t need a fireplace to warm you up when you eat this comfort food recipe; just a larger stomach to chow down as much as possible.