Recipe: Chicken and Dumplings

When it’s bone-chillingly cold outside, that’s when warm broth, healing chicken, and comforting biscuits call to me. I stir them into a big soup pot and serve them up for dinner.

This recipe for chicken and dumplings can be made completely from scratch (choose homemade broth and locally raised chickens), or take a few shortcuts (broth from a box/can, chicken thighs from the grocery and a bag of pre-cut veggies), to make it doable for a busy weeknight.

Either way, the result is steamy, spirit-buoying and delicious.

Chicken and dumplings are perfect when the weather is cold, or any time you want a satisfying and comforting soup.

Chicken and dumplings

Recipe originally shared at ChristinaNifong.com here.

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

• 1 medium onion, diced

• 2 stalks celery, sliced

• 2 carrots, peeled and sliced

• 1 Tbsp. fresh rosemary, stripped from stem and diced

• 1-2 cloves garlic, diced

• 1 tsp. fine sea salt

• 1/2 tsp. finely ground black pepper

• 4 cups roasted chicken, shredded

• 6 cups broth or water or a combination, divided

• 2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, divided

• 1 Tbsp. aluminum-free baking powder

• 1/2 tsp. baking soda

• 6 Tbsp. (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted

• 3/4 cup buttermilk

• 1 Tbsp. fresh parsley, stemmed and diced

Instructions:

1. Heat oil in cast iron Dutch oven on medium-high setting. Add onion, celery, carrots, rosemary, garlic, salt and pepper to pot. Cook until vegetables have softened, 5 to 7 minutes.

2. Add chicken and four cups broth. Heat until chicken is warmed and liquid is bubbling.

3. In a small bowl, whisk together 1/2 cup flour and 2 cups broth until well mixed. Add this mixture into Dutch oven and whisk 8 to 10 minutes until the liquid has thickened into a sauce.

4. In small bowl, whisk 2 cups flour with baking powder and baking soda. Stir in butter and then buttermilk until a sticky dough has formed. You may need to add a little water if the flour mixture is not incorporating completely into the dough.

5. Reduce heat under the Dutch oven to low, bringing the chicken mixture to a simmer. Drop tablespoons of batter into chicken mixture (should make about 10 dumplings). Cover Dutch oven and simmer for 10-12 minutes until dumplings are firm.

6. Ladle into bowls. Sprinkle with parsley. Serve warm.

BIO: Christina Nifong has penned features for newspapers in Boston, Raleigh, N.C., and Roanoke, Va. She’s worked in such far-flung places as Albania and Vienna, New York and Atlanta. She’s covered subjects from presidential races to poverty, from artists to chefs, and from hurricane survivors to breast cancer survivors. Today, Nifong writes freelance magazine articles and personal essays from her home office surrounded by the beautiful mountains of Southwest Virginia. Find out more here.

Looking for more recipes?

Try Christina's vegetarian Harvest Vegetable Soup

Love chicken? Anne Braly has a recipe for that!

Feel like something international? Check out Amber Royer's butter chickpea recipe