Every Sunday night we have family dinner with my parents and our best friends (who we consider family too).  In the summer, we usually grill and hang out in my dad’s amazing garden.  In the winter, we always ask each other what sounds good. Our friend, Avery, always has the same answer – chicken and dumplings! It doesn’t matter if it’s Christmas, Easter, or just a normal Sunday night, he ALWAYS requests chicken and dumplings!!
I was on the search for a great chicken and dumplings recipe for quite awhile. I come from a long line of family members who mastered chicken and dumplings but when I asked them for the recipe the answer was always “oh its easy – just cook your chicken, make your dumplings, and put it all together”. I needed more than that!! My mom ALWAYS made homemade dumplings when she made chicken and dumplings. She always used this thick, plastic, circular mat and I always knew when I saw the mat out that she was making my favorite meal!
This recipe is the combination of quite a few recipes and was the closest I have been able to get to the homemade recipes I grew up eating. It really is a delicious but very simple recipe – which, to me, makes it even better!  I hope you enjoy it as much as my family does!
Chicken and Dumplings
Ingredients
- 1 lb chicken breasts
- 48 oz chicken broth
- 2 cans cream of celery soup
- 1 can cream of chicken soup
- salt and lots of fresh ground pepper
Dumplings:
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 2 tbsp cold butter
- a little less than 1 cup of milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350. Drizzle both sides of chicken breasts with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Cook for 20-25 minutes or until cooked through. Shred the chicken once it is cooked.
- In a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat, mix together the chicken broth and soups. Whisk well so the soup is incorporated. Add a good pinch of salt and a good amount of black pepper.
- While the soup mixture is heating up, make your dumplings. In a large bowl, mix the flour and baking powder together. Cut the cold butter into small pieces and add to the bowl. Using your fingers, incorporate the butter into the flour until the mixture is crumbly. Add the milk and mix together with a spoon. Dump dough onto floured counter. Roll together and make a ball shape. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out into the thickness of your choice. Cut the dumplings into long strips and put aside. If the strips stick to each other, add a sprinkle of flour to the dumpling strips.
- When soup mixture is boiling, add the dumplings to the soup and cook until done (about 20 minutes).
- Taste the dumplings to make sure they are not doughy. Once cooked, turn the heat down and add in your shredded chicken. Taste to see if salt or pepper is needed.
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