A classic and hearty Chicken and Dumplings Soup From Scratch! This easy recipe is made using a whole chicken, loaded with vegetables, and topped with fluffy homemade dumplings.
Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, we can move on from talking all about turkey to talking about chicken. Although, I am a little sad that Thanksgiving 2017 is over because Thanksgiving is definitely my favorite holiday.
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday for a couple reasons. First, there is so much food! And, obviously, I love food. I love making food, I love eating food, and I love talking about food. My favorite Thanksgiving foods are by far my mom’s stuffing, my Green Bean Casserole with Rosemary Parmesan Gravy, and ham. I just love ham. And being that we raise cows and pigs for our own meat, our ham is as fresh and tasty as it gets! We even smoke the hams ourselves in a smoker that my dad built out of an old refrigerator. Pretty nifty, and pretty damn delicious.
After Thanksgiving, we usually have leftover ham, which means SMOKED HAM AND BEAN SOUP! Ahh, it’s soo good. My mom has made it for years, and guess what, I’ve got it up on the blog, so now you can make it too!
Speaking of yummy soups, who doesn’t love a classic? My Chicken and Dumplings Soup From Scratch is made using a whole chicken and is the ultimate cold weather comfort food. Even though this recipe calls for a whole chicken, I don’t want you to be intimidated; it’s easier to make than you may think.
You can buy a whole chicken at basically any grocery store next to all the other cuts of chicken. Then you just throw that chicken into a large pot, add some water and cook it right up (among other things). By doing so, you’ve made homemade broth and cooked your chicken in one swoop. Toss in some vegetables, mix together a handful of ingredients to make dumplings, and you’re almost done. Once you add the dumplings to the soup, you cover it with a lid, and in 15 minutes they are perfectly fluffy and tasty.
Not to mention, this Chicken and Dumpling Soup From Scratch feeds a crowd. It’s perfect for large families or leftovers! It reheats nicely.
You can freeze your leftovers, but the dumplings don’t un-thaw super well. I noticed that they kind of fell apart after being reheated from a frozen state. But, it all still tasted just as good! It just wasn’t as pretty. But does it really matter when it still tastes delicious? Nahhh.
Now, go enjoy something other than turkey and mashed potatoes, like this Chicken and Dumplings Soup From Scratch!
Chicken and Dumplings Soup From Scratch
Ingredients
Soup:
- 1 whole 3-4 lb chicken thawed
- ½ yellow onion diced
- 4 cups water
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 4 celery sticks thinly sliced
- 4 large carrots thinly sliced
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 2-4 cups chicken broth
- 3 chicken bouillon cubes
- ½ teaspoon salt plus more for seasoning chicken
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper plus more for seasoning chicken
- ½ teaspoon ground thyme
- 1 ½ cups frozen peas
Dumplings:
- 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour (scoop and level)
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ¾ cup buttermilk
- 1 egg
- ¼ cup fresh parsley, chopped (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350° F.
- Place the whole chicken in a large 4-6 quart baking dish. Pour in water until the chicken is about half covered. Season well with salt and pepper. Cover with tinfoil and bake 25 minutes for each pound, or until internal temperature reaches 165° F. So, if your chicken weighs 3 pounds, bake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes.
- Once done, remove the chicken from the baking dish and let cool enough to handle, then remove meat from bones and shred. While chicken is cooling, strain the liquid from the baking dish into a large bowl. Measure how many cups you have and set aside.
- Add oil, celery, carrots, and onion to a 6-quart or larger dutch oven or stockpot. Cover and cook on medium-high heat for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are slightly tender.
- Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables and mix to combine. Let cook for one minute, then gradually add the liquid from the chicken, whisking to combine. Add enough extra chicken broth to make a total of 10 cups of liquid in the pot. Add chicken bouillon, salt, pepper, and thyme to the pot, and stir to combine. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and let simmer for 30 minutes.
- While soup is simmering, make the dumpling batter. In a medium bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, salt, and pepper. In a small bowl, whisk together buttermilk, egg, and parsley (if desired). Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix until combined. Do not over mix dumplings or they will become dense.
- After soup has simmered for 30 minutes, add shredded chicken and peas to pot and stir to combine.
- Using a spoon, gently drop dumpling batter into the soup to create about 8-10 dumplings. Don’t make them too large, as the dumplings will double in size as they cook. Cover and simmer over medium heat for 18-20 minutes, or until dumplings are cooked through. Do not remove the lid while the dumplings are cooking, as they need the steam to cook properly. To make sure dumplings are cooked through, cut one in half. If not, cover and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes.
- Serve warm & enjoy!
Notes
- If your whole chicken is frozen, bake at 350° F. for about 3 hours or until internal temperature reaches 165° F.
- I used a 3-pound chicken which had about 4 cups of meat on it. Alternatively, you can use 3 large chicken breasts.
- If using thawed chicken breasts, bake at 350° F. for about 40-45 minutes or until internal temperature reaches 165° F.
- If using frozen chicken breasts, bake at 350° F. for about 1 hour or until internal temperature reaches 165° F.
- If you don’t have buttermilk on hand, you can mix together ¾ cup of milk and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. Let sit for 10 minutes before using.
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