Easy Chicken and Dumplings
This Easy Chicken and Dumplings recipe is pure southern comfort food. Made with chicken, broth, and canned biscuits. You can have dinner cooked and on the table in 30 minutes.
Cooking Chicken and Dumplings tonight brought back sweet memories of my dear mother in law. She always had the best chicken and dumplings! She loved to cook, and she put love in every dish she made. Sunday meals at her home will always be remembered in my heart. She made a huge impression on my children, and today, years later, they still talk about their favorite dishes she made for them. I am very grateful for her love and the love she put into her meals.
Begin With A Big Pot
Tonight I made a big pot of chicken and dumplings and I used her pot. This pot was well loved and used for many meals in her home. She made not only chicken and dumplings but also soups, mashed potatoes, stews, green beans, and too many other dishes to name in this pot. Her memories were sweet tonight as I prepared dinner for my family.

My chicken and dumplings recipe is very easy. I cheated a little and used canned biscuits for my dumplings. You can certainly make your dumplings from scratch, ( see my homemade biscuit recipe) but I was in a bit of a rush to get dinner on the table at a decent hour and before my family cleaned out the snack corner! 🙂

What kind of Chicken for Chicken and Dumplings?
For this recipe, I use boneless, skinless chicken breast. But you do have several choices.
Chicken Breast— Boneless, skinless is the easiest to use. If you use skin-on–boil and then remove the skin.
Chicken Thighs–Chicken thighs are my favorite. Why? Because they are full of flavor. But in this recipe, I use boneless chicken breast. Don’t have chicken breast? Thighs will work just fine.
Whole Chicken–If you have a whole chicken, use it. Boil the chicken until done, and pick all of the meat off of the bones. It will be delicious with a mix of white and dark meat.
Chicken Tenders–Easy to use. Boil and shred or chop. No bones and no skin. These don’t take too much time to boil. I usually put these on to cook while pulling all of the other ingredients out of the pantry.
Rotisserie Chicken–Yes, if you are short on time, stop by the store and grab a rotisserie chicken. Pull the meat off of the bone, shred it, and throw it into the pot.
I made this dinner tonight, after work, so it is possible for a weeknight meal, even for busy families. **TIP—The chicken can be cooked in advance to save time. You might throw the chicken in the crockpot in the morning, pick up a rotisserie chicken, or boil it over the weekend, bag it, and have it ready for this meal during the week.
What kind of Dumplings?
There are several types of dumplings you might use for chicken and dumplings. The most popular choices are:
Canned Biscuits: Most nights, this is my go-to for dumplings. When I am running short on time, canned biscuits always come to the rescue. Just pop open a can, cut biscuits into small pieces, and you have your dumplings ready for the pot.
Drop Biscuits: Drop biscuits are easy to make and will work for this recipe. This is just a flour/biscuit mixture made in a bowl and then dropped by the spoonful into the hot soup.
Frozen Dumplings: I have personally not tried frozen dumplings for this recipe, but there are several choices out there. The dumplings are ready and just waiting to be dropped into the pot.
Rolled Dumplings: This was the way my mother in law made her dumplings. She would mix up the dough, roll it out, and cut the dough into pieces. Yum!
Of course, the choice is yours to make depending on your tastes and time. Mostly, I use canned biscuits during the week. This recipe uses canned biscuits and is quite delicious.
What makes this soup Creamy?
Cream of Chicken soup makes this pot of Chicken and Dumplings delicious. The soup adds additional flavor and creaminess. If you don’t have any cream of chicken soup in your pantry, I have used cream of mushroom. It works fine, every time!
Ingredients Needed for Chicken and Dumplings
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast, cooked and chopped
48 oz. chicken broth
2 cans cream of chicken soup
2 cans biscuits
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons flour
salt and pepper
How to Make Easy Chicken and Dumplings
Cook chicken and dice into small pieces.
Pour broth in a large soup pot. Add chicken. Bring to a boil.
Add soup. Stir until completely mixed.
Cut biscuits into small pieces. They will expand when they cook.
Drop biscuit pieces, one at a time, in boiling broth.
At this point, I usually reduce the heat so my dumplings won’t stick.
Cook about 15 minutes or until dumplings are done.
Drop 2 tablespoons of butter on top and let melt. Stir gently.
Make a slurry of 1/4 cup water and 2 tablespoons of flour. Mix well and slowly pour in pot and gently stir. This will thicken the broth. Cook 10 minutes longer. Salt and pepper to taste.
Serve with crusty bread.
Are you craving more comfort food? Be sure to check out Creamy Chicken Casserole. Creamy shredded chicken baked with a Ritz Cracker topping. A delicious meal that is true comfort food and easy to prepare for any night of the week.
Pan Cooked Sticky Chicken is finger licking good. It is sticky and sweet and so pleasing to your taste buds.
Wanting some soup? Check out my Taco Soup recipe for another weeknight soup idea. It will certainly take the chill out of your bones. Cream Cheese Chicken Chili is another easy meal made in the crock pot.
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Easy Chicken and Dumplings
Ingredients
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast cooked & diced
- 48 ounces chicken broth
- 2 10.5 ounce cans cream of chicken soup
- 2 cans biscuits
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 tablespoons flour
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Cook chicken and dice into small pieces.
- Pour broth in a large soup pot. Add chicken. Bring to a boil.
- Add soup and stir until completely mixed.
- Cut biscuits into small pieces. They will expand while they cook.
- Drop biscuit pieces, one at a time, in boiling broth. At this point, I usually reduce the heat so my dumplings won't stick.
- Cook about 15 minutes or until dumplings are done.
- Drop 2 Tablespoons of butter on top of dumplings in pot and let melt. Stir gently.
- Make a slurry of flour and water. Mix well until no lumps are visible. Slowly pour in pot and gently stir. This will thicken the broth. Cook 10 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Regular biscuits or grands? I bought the large ones (grands) Do i still use 2?
Hey Sadie,
I just used the regular cans of biscuits for my dumplings. Grands will work fine, you might just have larger dumplings. Try cutting them a little smaller if they seem too large. Enjoy!
2 cans of 10ct biscuits for a total of 20 biscuits ?
Hi Angela! Yes, that is correct- 2 cans of 10ct biscuits. Enjoy!
Lid off or on when adding the biscuits?
Lid is off.
Thank you for this recipe!! I was in the mood for chicken and dumplings but didn’t have 4 hours to cook them in the crockpot like I normally do. I used rotisserie chicken and added some basic chicken spice to the beginning step and it came out delicious. I will definitely make again!
I am so glad you tried this recipe. Chicken and Dumplings is one of my favorite dishes to make and eat. 🙂 Thank you for your comment!
Do you add the cream of chicken to the chicken broth before dropping in the biscuits ,when is the cream of chicken added?
Step 3 in the recipe card. You’ll add the cream of chicken soup before you drop the biscuits. Thanks for the comment and enjoy!
Can I use cream of mushroom if I don’t have cream of chicken in the pantry?
Yes, cream of mushroom will work just fine in this recipe. Enjoy!
When you say reduce heat it would be nice to know what to reduce it to. 🙂 Thx for the recipe.
Hey Mel! This is a delicious recipe! Usually I reduce my heat to medium or medium low. This will keep the dumplings from sticking. Hope you try it and enjoy!
I am definitely gonna try this
I believe you will love this recipe!
I love this recipe for easy chicken and dumplings you share! It sounds easy and so delicious! I live in Europe and here we do not have such canned biscuits as far as I know. But maybe I could try to make them myself.:) Thanks for this fantastic recipe!
You can make homemade biscuit dough for your dumplings. Just roll out the dough and cut into small pieces. They will be delicious!
Thanks for posting this. I plan on making these this weekend. Thanks.
My husband has been asking me to make chicken and dumplings and this looks like an awesome recipe! Thanks so much for sharing! 🙂
Looks so yum! I’m definitely gonna give this a try. Thanks for sharing this recipe!
I have always loved to eat chicken and dumplings but have never known how to make it. I love that you make yours in a pot that belonged to a dear family member. Thanks for this easy recipe!
Oh, WOW! This looks REALLY good and super quick! I think it’s got to happen tonight… Thanks so much for sharing this recipe!! 🙂
Instead of water and flour to make the broth thick can you use corn starch ?
Yes, you are so right. Most of the time I use cornstarch, but while making this recipe, I didn’t have any on hand. Thanks for stopping by.
Made this dinner for today. I added a 1/4 tsp of poultry seasoning. Turned out amazing!
It looks delicious. I will definitely be trying it out. Thanks.
This was such a comforting and delicious meal for our family!! So easy to make too!
This is one of my families favorite dinner recipes. It’s so simple and delicious. Adding to my monthly rotation.
This is a must-try recipe. Love this easy version. Perfect for busy day…
These chicken and dumplings are the ultimate comfort food! Love it.
Should I stir any during the cooking time for the dumplings?
Stir gently while the dumplings are cooking.
I usually make the chicken and dumplings the old way—slow cooking a whole chicken several hours in a big pot on the stove with broth and then cooling the chicken and stripping it off the bone. Then reheating the broth, adding the shredded chicken back to the pot and dropping in frozen dumplings that I have thawed. This was so much easier and look forward to eating it later.