One of my long-time favorite meals is Chicken and Dumplings, with its creamy broth loaded with shredded chicken and vegetables. I always loved making a huge batch so we could have days of leftovers, but as I became a busy parent, it fell out of my rotation until I figured out how to make it in a slow cooker.
I use boneless chicken to minimize prep, and the slow cooker handles all the cooking. While other recipes use canned biscuit dough, I make a quick dumpling batter that I dollop on top. It's not completely hands-off, but it takes far less babysitting than a stovetop version.
Chicken and dumplings was one of the first from-scratch meals I taught myself to cook, and I love how hearty and comforting it is. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!
If you love big batch slow cooker meals, check out Soy-Cola Braised Pork, Slow Cooker Barbacoa, and Southwestern Bean and Barley Soup.
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Why I Love It
You'll love my Slow Cooker Chicken and Dumplings because it's:
- Warming and comforting
- A hearty, stew-like, vegetable-loaded meal with tender homemade dumplings (no canned biscuits) and creamy broth
- Lots of food! so you have plenty for both dinner and leftovers
- Mostly hands-off, with one midpoint step to shred the chicken and add the dumplings
Ingredients You'll Need
You'll make a chicken soup and a dumpling dough from scratch, but they're both simple to prepare, and take basic ingredients. You'll need:
- Chicken
- Chicken broth or bouillon
- Onion, celery, carrots, and garlic
- Thyme, salt, black pepper, and bay leaf
- Frozen green peas
- Flour and baking powder
- Butter and milk
I include chicken breasts because I prefer white meat, but thighs are fine. Using boneless pieces makes shredding chicken into the soup easier.
I typically use chicken bouillon and water because it's more convenient than using broth. Don't skip bouillon or broth, or the soup will be bland.
Onion, celery, carrots, and garlic add flavor to the broth and bulk to the soup. Thyme, black pepper, and bay leaf also add flavor that's missing from the broth; don't skip them. (PS: discard the bay leaf after cooking - your stomach can't digest it!)
I round out the soup with lots of green peas, to add extra vegetables to make my chicken and dumplings a stew-like complete meal.
All-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt form the base of the dumplings. The flour in the dumplings thickens the broth; I wouldn't try a gluten-free flour blend, as they act differently.
Butter and milk finish up the dough. Milk in the dumplings makes the broth creamy; non-dairy milks behave differently, so I can't recommend them.
How to make Slow Cooker Chicken and Dumplings
You'll need a large, 6-quart slow cooker or crockpot to make this. The crock will be very full. Don't use more than 2 ½ pounds of chicken, or the slow cooker will overflow.
Before You Start: The slow cooker does most of the work, but you'll return partway through the cooking time to shred chicken and add dumplings.
When you start the chicken and dumplings, move the bags of frozen green peas to the refrigerator.
- Combine soup ingredients in a 6-quart slow cooker, and cook on low for around 4 hours. (Cooking on high doesn't save much time, and can make the chicken tough.)
- At 4 hours, shred the chicken and stir in the frozen peas. Replace the lid and cook on high while you make dumplings.
- Mix together flour, baking powder, and salt. Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter (affiliate link) or two knives, until it looks like small crumbs. You can use two knives, or your fingers, to cut the butter in if necessary.
- Use a fork to stir in the milk, until a sticky batter forms. It's okay if there's a little flour left though.
You'll notice that making the dumpling dough is a bit like making scones like my Grapefruit Scones; you use the same technique to cut in the butter, but the dumpling dough is much wetter.
- Use the fork to dollop the dumplings into the hot soup, spreading them across the entire surface. I usually swish the fork in the liquid to release the dumplings, and leave a couple underneath the surface.
- Replace the lid, and cook on high for another 2 hours. The dumplings will look set and dry on top when they're done.
Break up the dumplings and stir them into the soup. This submerges the dumplings and makes the liquid more gravy-like.
Hint: Don't let the soup be too close to the top of the slow cooker, or it will bubble out. This won't affect cooking much, but it will create a mess.
Serving and Storage
Serve the chicken and dumplings immediately.
One batch makes a ton, so we always have leftovers. Since the dumplings contain milk with enriches the broth, refrigerate them promptly. Reheat gently and eat within 3-5 days.
Slow Cooker Chicken and Dumplings FAQs
Absolutely! I prefer white meat, but chicken thighs should work great. Trim excess fat before cooking; too much fat floating along the top of the soup makes dumplings heavy and greasy. Be sure the chicken shreds easily; if it doesn't, cook the soup for about another hour before adding dumplings.
Frozen chicken should be thawed before cooking; otherwise, starting with frozen chicken keeps the slow cooker in the unsafe temperature range for too long. I often use chicken breasts I've previously frozen; I just thaw them first.
I use a 6-quart slow cooker to make chicken and dumplings, with no room to spare. Halve the soup ingredients if making it in a 4-quart slow cooker; cooking time should remain the same. For the dumplings, use 1 ½ cups flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, ½ teaspoon salt, 3 tablespoons butter, and ¾ cup milk; cooking time for the dumplings will be closer to 1 hour.
Since the milk from the dumplings enriches the broth, reheat it gently. I use 30-second bursts in the microwave, stirring after each; stir frequently if reheating leftovers on the stove, to prevent scorching on bottom. Leftovers will be thick; add a splash of water if necessary to loosen up the soup.
You don't! Stirring the dumplings into the soup is part of the charm, as it makes the soup creamy. I make larger dumplings so that I still have defined dumplings in the soup, but the edges become soft and dissolve into the soup to thicken it. The outsides will be soft and wet, but the insides will be tender and biscuit-like.
More Slow Cooker Meals
Here's some of my other favorite slow cooker meals for busy days:
More Hearty Soups
Here's some of my other favorite cold-weather soups!
I hope this becomes a recipe you'll return to. If you try it, a star rating below helps others find it - and I'd love to hear how yours turns out in the comments! 💕 Questions or trouble? Drop a note, and I'll do my best to help.
📖 Recipe
Slow Cooker Chicken and Dumplings
Equipment
- 6-quart slow cooker
- pastry cutter (affiliate link)
Ingredients
Chicken Soup
- 2 ½ pounds chicken breasts or thighs
- 1 onion (chopped; 10 ounces)
- 4 stalks celery (chopped; 8 ounces)
- 2 cups carrots (chopped; 10 ounces)
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic (6 cloves)
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- ½ teaspoon table salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper (ground)
- 1 bay leaf
- 6 cups chicken broth
Vegetables
- 24 ounces frozen peas
Dumplings
- 2 ¼ cups flour (270 grams)
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon table salt
- 5 tablespoons butter (diced into small cubes)
- 1 ⅛ cups milk (260 grams)
Instructions
Cook the Chicken Soup (10-15 minutes prep; 4 hours cooking)
- Combine chicken, vegetables, spices, salt, and broth in a 6-quart slow cooker. Cook on low for 4 hours.
- While the chicken cooks, place the frozen peas in the refrigerator to begin thawing.
Shred Chicken/Prep Dumplings (15-20 minutes prep)
- At the end of cooking time, taste the soup and add salt or adjust seasonings as necessary. Shred the chicken; if it doesn't break apart, it needs to cook longer.
- Stir in the frozen vegetables. Replace the lid, and switch the slow cooker to high while you prepare the dumpling dough.
- Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Use a pastry cutter (affiliate link) to cut in butter, until the mixture looks like small crumbs.
- Use a fork to stir in the milk, tossing the flour around until everything is a mass of dough. (It's okay, though, to have some dry flour leftover or stuck to the sides.)
- Use the fork to drop portions of dough into the soup. If you have trouble, submerge the fork and swish it around to ease the dumplings off. Spread them along the entire surface, not just in one spot, and leave space between them if possible. They will merge together as they cook, so size isn't important.
Cook the Dumplings (2 hours)
- Replace the lid, and cook on high for 2 hours. The tops of the dumplings will look set and almost dry when they're done. Use a fork to tear under the surface of one to be sure it's done.
Serving
- Mix together the chicken and dumplings; this helps dissolve some of the dumplings into the soup to make it creamier and more gravy-like. This also submerges the dumplings, which is okay. Serve immediately.
- Store leftovers in the refrigerator for 3-5 days. Since the soup contains dairy, reheat gently.
Leona Konkel says
I'm happy to bring chicken and dumplings back into my meal rotation with this slow cooker recipe. Even my daughter, who doesn't like soup, is happy when I tell her this is for dinner or leftovers. I've made it several times so you can also make it without babysitting your crockpot, wondering if the recipe will work. I hope you enjoy making this recipe this winter as much as we do. I'd love to hear how it turns out!