Chicken and Dumplings Supper
A from-scratch supper: a whole chicken simmered into rich broth, then finished with fluffy drop dumplings, plus a quick skillet of buttered green beans.
- Full Meals
- Cast iron / Dutch oven
- Chicken
- Dinner
- 135 min total
- Serves 6
Ingredients
Ingredients for servings
Enter a number of at least ½, in steps of ½.
Original recipe serves 6. Ingredient amounts adjust automatically. Cooking times and pan size may need adjusting separately.
Broth and chicken
- 4 lb whole chicken
- 10 cups water
- 1 yellow onion, quartered
- 2 ribs celery, cut in chunks
- 2 carrots, cut in chunks
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tbsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp black peppercorns
Stew
- 4 tbsp butter
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 2 carrots, diced
- 2 ribs celery, diced
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1 tsp dried thyme
Dumplings
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1 tsp sugar
- 3/4 tsp kosher salt
- 4 tbsp butter, melted
- 3/4 cup milk
- 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
Green beans
- 1 1/2 lb green beans, trimmed
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
Gear
- Large Dutch oven or stockpot with lid
- Fine-mesh strainer
- Skillet
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Steps
Step 1: BROTH: Put the chicken, water, quartered onion, celery chunks, carrot chunks, bay leaves, salt and peppercorns in a big pot. Bring to a boil, then lower to a gentle simmer. Skim any foam. Simmer partly covered 1 hour, until the chicken is cooked through and tender.
Step 2: Lift the chicken onto a cutting board to cool. Strain the broth; you need about 8 cups. Once cool enough, pull the meat into bite-size pieces and throw away the skin and bones.
Step 3: STEW: In the same pot (a Dutch oven is ideal), melt the butter over medium. Cook the diced onion, carrots and celery 6 to 8 minutes until soft. Sprinkle in the flour and stir 2 minutes.
Step 4: Slowly whisk in 8 cups of the broth. Add the thyme. Simmer 10 minutes until slightly thickened. Stir in the cream and the chicken. Taste and season with salt and pepper.
Step 5: DUMPLINGS: Whisk the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Stir in the melted butter, milk and parsley just until a sticky dough forms. Don't overmix.
Step 6: With the stew at a gentle simmer, drop rounded tablespoons of dough on top, leaving a little room between them.
Step 7: Cover and simmer 15 minutes without lifting the lid. The dumplings should be puffed and cooked through (cut one open; no raw dough in the center).
Step 8: GREEN BEANS (while dumplings cook): Boil the green beans in salted water 4 minutes and drain. Melt the butter in a skillet over medium-high, add the beans and garlic, and toss 2 to 3 minutes. Season with salt.
Step 9: Ladle the chicken and dumplings into bowls with green beans on the side.
Game plan
Supper at 6:30 PM:
- 4:15 PM: Chicken in the pot. Bring to a simmer.
- 5:15 PM: Chicken out to cool. Strain broth.
- 5:30 PM: Pull chicken. Start the stew vegetables.
- 5:50 PM: Broth in, simmer. Trim green beans and put water on to boil.
- 6:05 PM: Cream and chicken in. Mix the dumpling dough.
- 6:10 PM: Drop dumplings. Lid on, timer set.
- 6:15 PM: Cook the green beans.
- 6:25 PM: Check dumplings.
- 6:30 PM: Supper’s ready.
Swaps
- Faster: Use 8 cups store-bought chicken broth and a rotisserie chicken; start at the stew step.
- Rolled dumplings: Roll the dough 1/8 inch thick, cut into strips and simmer 10 to 12 minutes, stirring gently.
- Veg: Stir in a cup of frozen peas at the end.
Tips
- Save leftover broth for soup or rice.
- Keep it at a gentle simmer once the dumplings go in. A hard boil can break them apart.
The story
HAM Cooking. Let’s fire it up.
There’s an easy, canned-biscuit version of this recipe on the site, and I love it. This is its older, wiser, slower relative. You make the broth from a whole chicken, which sounds like a lot of work but is mostly the pot doing the job while you watch the game.
Homemade broth is the reason to do it this way. Simmering the whole bird pulls gelatin out of the bones and skin, which gives the broth a rich body that boxed broth can’t quite match. A little flour and cream turn it into a silky, spoonable stew that’s thick enough for dumplings to sit on top.
The dumplings get their lift from baking powder. As they simmer under a tight lid, the top half steams and puffs up while the bottom soaks in the stew. Lift the lid and that steam escapes, and they go dense. So no peeking. I know. It’s hard. Go set the table.
HAM out.
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