Learn how to make this simple chicken and dumplings in a slow cooker. The soup is made with homemade dumplings that are super easy to make.
Lesson Learned from a Greasy Soup Disaster
Back when my wife and I first got married and were just in the early learning stages of learning how to cook different dishes, we made some chicken noodle soup in the slow cooker. This was long before the days of the Instant Pot which we normally use to cook a whole chicken for soup now. What we discovered is that when we slow cooked the entire chicken, the soup ended up incredibly greasy. With each and every bite you had to wipe your lips off with a napkin. It was not pleasant.
We vowed to never make that mistake again. Cut to just a couple weeks ago. I have been wanting to add a few more slow cooker recipes to the blog and I was thinking that chicken and dumplings sounded like a great idea. Remember back from my grease soup experience, this time around I didn't cook a whole chicken but instead opted for boneless skinless chicken thighs. The fact that I am here writing this right now shows you that this was a lot more successful than my previous attempts to make a chicken soup in a slow cooker.
Follow along and see what I have learned over the years that helped produce the recipe that I get to share with you now.
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Ingredients
Here is what you are going to need from the store and why:
- Chicken stock - Homemade would be best. I save up any chicken bones I have to make stock and freeze it for recipes. If you don't have that, choose your favorite brand from the store. I prefer ones that say lower sodium so that I can better control the salt level.
- Half and half - You are going to add this at the very end of cooking to give you a creamy element.
- Boneless skinless chicken thighs - I prefer to use chicken thighs as they have more flavor and they hold up better for a long cook time, thus more tender, moist chicken in the end. Yes you could use chicken breasts, but they will likely be tougher and more stringy.
- Carrots - I like to use larger carrots that hold up better when being cooked for a long time.
- Celery - If you buy celery hearts, you will get more tender celery. I usually just get the standard celery as it's cheaper.
- Onion - I recommend using a sweet or yellow onion.
- Salt - I will leave it up to you to decide on the salt. My favorite is Redmond Real Salt.
- Parsley - At the time I first made this soup I had a ton of parsley in the garden so it made sense to use it. The green color makes a nice contrast in the soup and it's not too strong herbal flavor goes well with the soup.
For the dumplings
- All-purpose flour - Just your basic, everyday flour for this.
- Baking powder - To help give the dumplings a little lift.
- Salt
- Butter - You are going to be adding to the dumplings when cold.
- Buttermilk - The buttermilk gives the dumplings a little more flavor than just using whole milk. It will also help to make tender dumplings and provide them with a little more lift along with the baking powder.
Top Tips
The soup takes around 4 hours to make at the high setting on your slow cooker. The dumplings are cooked during the last part of the cook time once the chicken is tender and the veggies are soft enough.
When I am preparing my veggies for the soup I cut them in rather large chunks. I don't want them to become mush as the soup is cooking, so keeping them big prevents that. Plus not all my kids want the carrots, celery, and onions in their soup so it makes it easy to pick around.
The chicken is easy to put in as well. I simply put them in whole and when the soup is ready I remove the chicken and shred it.
I use a disher to make my dumplings so that they are the same size and cook in the same amount of time. That is key.
I place the dumplings onto a sheet pan until they are all ready. You don't want to put them in the soup as you scoop them out or the first dumpling you drop in will be done before the last one you dropped in.
How do you know when the dumplings are done? They start out looking like small balls like in the photo above. Then they will puff up like in the next photo.
Carefully watch them so they do not overcook and fall apart. For me it only took about 15 minutes with the slow cooker at high. Since high isn't an exact temperature it could vary from slow cooker to slow cooker.
Slow Cooker Chicken and Homemade Buttermilk Dumplings
Ingredients
- 2 ½-3 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 1 quart chicken stock
- 4 large carrots
- 3 stalks celery
- 1 medium or large yellow or sweet onion
- salt to taste
- ½ cup half and half
- 2-3 tbsp fresh parsley chopped
For the dumplings
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp cold butter, cubed
- ½ cup buttermilk
Instructions
- Start by adding the chicken thighs to the slow cooker. You don't need to cut it in any way, just put them in whole.
- Cut the carrots, celery, and onion into large chunks and add to the slow cooker.
- Add salt to taste. Then add in the chicken stock.
- Set the slow cooker to high and place on the lid.
- When the chicken is tender enough to shred around the 3-3.5 hour mark, remove the chicken and set aside to cool.
- While the chicken cools, make the dumplings by combining flour, baking powder, and salt in a mixing bowl.
- Cut the butter in o cubes and with your fingers rub the butter into the flour until it looks like a coarse meal.
- Add in the buttermilk and mix to fully combine.
- Using a disher or ice cream scoop, make equal sized balls of dough and place them onto a sheet pan until you have used up all the dough.
- Place the dumplings into the slow cooker.
- While they are cooking shred the now cooled chicken with a fork.
- The dumplings are done when they are puffy, firm on the outside, and cooked through on the inside. You can carefully stick a toothpick in one to see if it comes out mostly clean. Or check them with an instant read thermometer. They should be around 200 degrees.
- The time it takes can vary on how big your dumplings are and how hot your slow cooker gets. Give yourself around 15 to 30 minutes.
- When the dumplings are done, carefully add back in the chicken and add in the half and half. Gently stir to combine. Top off with the fresh chopped parsley and the soup is ready to serve.
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