Chicken Dumpling Soup is an easy Southern dinner made with cooked chicken, carrots and drop dumplings, ready in 1 hour 10 minutes. The pot serves six at 273 calories a bowl. Frozen peas go in near the end if you want them.
I sprinkle two tablespoons of flour over the softened vegetables and cook it a full minute before any broth goes in. That one step is what makes the broth creamy without a drop of cream, so the soup stays light. Most versions reach for heavy cream and end up heavy.
The lid goes on once the dumplings hit the soup, and it stays on for the full fifteen minutes. Dumplings cook in trapped steam, so lifting the lid drops the temperature and leaves the centers raw. Keep the pot at a low simmer too, because a hard boil tears them apart.
Chicken Dumpling Soup
Course: SoupCuisine: SouthernDifficulty: Easy4
servings30
minutes40
minutes300
kcalThe dumpling dough is built like pastry, with cold butter cut into the dry mix before the milk goes in. Half a teaspoon of poultry seasoning does the heavy lifting in the broth, alongside fresh parsley and thyme.
Ingredients
- For the Soup:
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 large onion, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
2 large carrots, sliced in 1/4 inch rounds
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
6 cups low sodium chicken broth or stock
2 bay leaves
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 cups cooked chicken, cut in small cubes
1 cup frozen peas (optional)
- For the Dumplings:
1 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup milk, 2% or whole
Directions
- Soften the vegetables: Melt the butter over medium heat in a Dutch oven or stockpot. Add the onion, celery and carrots and cook until the onion and celery are soft and fragrant, approximately 7 to 8 minutes.
- Build the roux: Reduce the heat to low. Add the garlic, parsley, thyme and poultry seasoning and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Sprinkle in the 2 tablespoons of flour and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly.
- Simmer the broth: Stir in the chicken stock and bay leaves and simmer for 20 minutes, or until the carrots are soft. Remove the bay leaves and season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Add the chicken: Add the cubed chicken and the frozen peas, if using, and simmer for 5 minutes.
- Drop the dumplings: In a medium bowl, mix the 1 cup flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter, and when crumbly add the milk and stir just until combined. Drop by small spoonfuls into the simmering soup, cover and cook for 15 minutes without removing the lid. Garnish with chopped fresh parsley or thyme.
Remove the bay leaves before the dumplings go in, since their sharp edges are easy to lose track of. Leftovers hold three days refrigerated, and the broth alone freezes for three months.
Dumplings fail in predictable ways, and so does the broth under them.
FAQs
Can I use rotisserie chicken?
Yes, and two cups of pulled meat is about half a rotisserie bird, which is the easiest route here. Strip the skin before cubing, since it goes slack in broth and adds nothing. Leftover roast chicken or poached breasts work the same way, because the meat is added already cooked.
Why is the sodium so high?
Each bowl carries 1,336 mg of sodium, which is more than half a day’s limit for most adults. Low sodium broth is already specified, so the rest comes from the added salt and the baking powder. Cut the half teaspoon in the dumplings and season the broth at the table instead.
My dumplings came out dense. What happened?
Overworking the dough is the usual culprit, so stir only until the milk is just combined and lumps are fine. Baking powder loses lift with age, which catches people out when the tin has been open a year. Drop the dough in small spoonfuls, because big ones stay gummy in the middle.
Can I freeze it with the dumplings in?
Freeze the soup before the dumplings go in, and make a fresh batch when you reheat it. Dumplings absorb liquid and turn spongy after thawing, which is why the three month window really applies to the broth. Refrigerated with dumplings, it holds three days and no longer.
What if I do not have poultry seasoning?
Mixing a pinch each of dried sage, thyme and marjoram gets you close enough for half a teaspoon. Sage is the dominant note, so skip it and the broth tastes like plain chicken stock. For a soup that leans on citrus rather than herbs, try this lemon chicken orzo soup instead.
How do I stretch this to feed more people?
Six servings comes from six cups of broth, so add two more cups and a half batch of dumpling dough for eight. Do not scale the flour roux past three tablespoons, because the broth turns pasty rather than creamy. A fuller crowd option is this cubed chicken pot pie with puff pastry.
