Chicken and Dumplings
Chicken thighs simmered with vegetables in a simple broth, topped with drop dumplings cooked directly in the pot.
Place chicken thighs in a large pot. Add broth, onion, carrot, celery, garlic, thyme, and bay leaf.
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a steady simmer. Cook 25 minutes until chicken is cooked through.
Remove chicken to a cutting board. Pull the meat off the bones, discard the skin and bones, and shred the meat into large pieces with two forks. Discard bay leaf.
Return shredded chicken to the pot. Keep the broth at a gentle simmer. Taste and season with salt and pepper.
Make the dumplings: whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl. Work in the cold butter with your fingers until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs. Stir in milk just until a rough dough forms — do not overmix.
Drop the dough by heaping tablespoons onto the surface of the simmering stew. You should get 8–10 dumplings.
Cover the pot with a lid and cook without lifting it for 15 minutes. The dumplings steam from the broth vapor — lifting the lid deflates them.
Check that a dumpling in the center is cooked through (it should not be doughy inside). Serve immediately.
Two cartons of broth is the main cost. You can use one carton and 900 mL water if the budget is very tight — the stew will be lighter but the dumplings absorb the flavor.
- Do not lift the lid while the dumplings are steaming. This is the most common mistake and produces gummy, undercooked centers.
- Flour for the dumplings is not priced here from a dedicated bag; a 2 kg bag of flour costs about $4 and will last many recipes.
Estimated values per serving.
This recipe can be made gluten-free with substitutions.
- Replace all-purpose flour (dumplings) with 1:1 GF all-purpose flour blend (same weight) (GF flour adds $1–2; stew itself is GF already.)
The stew base is naturally gluten-free. GF dumpling flour works but produces a slightly denser texture.