Chicken and Dumplings

Have you ever had chicken and dumplings?  I hadn't and wasn't sure if I would like it or not.  But I had all the ingredients on hand, and it sounded like a good meal for a cold day, so we gave it a try.


Delicious!  I learned that I LOVE chicken and dumplings!  This was easy, nourishing, creamy, warm and soooo yummy.  And I love that it is made from ingredients that I generally have on hand.  We all loved it!

This recipe is from Our Best Bites' cookbook.

• 6 cups chicken broth (1 1/2 boxes or 3 cans) OR (I didn't' have broth on hand) 6 c. water + 6 chicken bouillon cubes 
• 1 lb. cooked chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces (you could use 1/2 of a fauxtisserie chicken and it’s FABULOUS! You could also use leftover rotisserie chicken from the grocery store) 
• 1 c. sliced carrots 
• 2 ribs celery, chopped 
• 1 onion, minced 
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed 
• 1 bay leaf 
• 1 handful of chopped fresh parsley OR 1 Tbsp. dried parsley
• 1/2 tsp. basil 
• 1 14-oz. can evaporated milk (fat free is fine) 
• 1 recipe of Bisquik dumplings (recipe is on the box) 
• 1 T. olive oil

If using uncooked chicken, cook your chicken.

Meanwhile, in a large pot, heat some olive oil over medium heat and add onions and garlic. Saute for a few minutes and then add chicken broth (OR water and buillion like I did), cooked chicken, bay leaf, and basil. Bring to a boil. Add carrots and celery and reduce heat to a simmer. Cover and cook until carrots and celery are tender. While this is cooking, prepare the Bisquik dumpling batter, as instructed on the box.  When carrots and celery are almost done, add chopped parsley. Add evaporated milk. Increase heat to boiling add prepared Bisquik by small spoonfuls (they’ll really puff up while they’re cooking). Cook until dumplings are cooked through (they should appear moist but feel firm; this is after about 4-5 minutes).

One other thing–if you know you’ll have leftovers, only add dumplings to what you know you’ll eat immediately. The dumplings will soak up all the liquid in the soup when you store it as leftovers, so you’ll have overly-mushy dumplings and chicken with no broth if you don’t. The other thing you can do is add all of the dumplings or all of the noodles, and then store the dumplings or noodles separately from the rest of the soup. That’s easy to do with dumplings, not so much with noodles. Serves 5-6-ish…