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Chicken Dumpling Soup is a hearty family favorite filled with classic chicken soup flavors and fluffy dumplings from scratch. An ultimate comfort food that is on the dinner table in less than an hour.
This chicken soup is my Maverick's favorite! He loves himself some chicken soup! This is the perfect comfort soup on a cold winter day, a dreary summer day or chilly fall day! A classic chicken soup filled with tender chicken and delightful old fashioned dumplings!
This is a great meal to use up some of that leftover chicken. If there is some Crock Pot Chicken or Simple Roasted Chicken Breasts hanging in your fridge, use it to make this delicious and comforting soup! No leftovers, no problem. Make some simple Instant Pot Shredded Chicken.
This post was originally posted on 012/09/2014 and updated on 03/12/2021.
Chicken Dumpling Soup Ingredients
Soup:
- Olive Oil
- Butter
- Onion
- Celery
- Carrots
- Garlic
- Flour
- Chicken Broth
- Thyme
- Parsley
- Diced or Shredded Cooked Chicken
- Salt and Pepper
Dumplings:
- Flour
- Salt
- Baking Powder
- Butter
- Milk
- Thyme
- Parsley
Substitution Suggestions
- Olive Oil: I prefer to use olive oil for sautéing, but you can substitute with avocado oil, canola oil, or vegetable oil.
- Flour: Feel free to use whole wheat flour if you prefer. I like this soup to have a thickness more like a stew does, so I use the flour to thicken the broth a bit. Ultimately, you could leave it out altogether.
- Chicken Broth: Stock, bone broth, homemade broth will all work well in this recipe. You can substitute with vegetable broth as well.
- Thyme & Parsley: These are the flavors I really like in this soup, it is how I ate it growing up. You can always substitute with your favorite herbs. Rosemary, Sage, Italian Seasoning would all be good options.
- Diced or Shredded Cooked Chicken: Chicken can be substituted with turkey. This is a great soup to make after a big turkey dinner.
- Milk: Feel free to substitute with the type of milk you drink. I prefer cows 2% milk, but any would work. Buttermilk is really good in these dumplings.
How to Make Easy Chicken Dumpling Soup
- Heat oil and butter over medium heat in a large dutch oven or soup pot that has a tight fitting lid.
- Add diced onions, celery and carrots, sauté until onions are soft and translucent.
- Add garlic and sauté 2 more minutes until garlic is fragrant.
- Next stir in flour, thyme, and parsley, and cook for 1 minute.
- Slowly add chicken broth while constantly stirring.
- Gently add the chicken pieces and season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Reduce heat to low and simmer soup while you make the dumplings.
How to Make Dumplings from Scratch for Chicken and Dumpling Soup
- Whisk flour, salt, baking powder, parsley and thyme in large bowl.
- Mix in butter and milk.
- Scoop or spoon the dumpling dough and drop on top of soup.
- Cover pot tightly with lid.
- Cook for 15 minutes with NO PEEKING! Do not remove the lid to check the dumplings until the 15 minutes has passed, otherwise you will let all the steam escape. Use a toothpick to check if dumplings are completely done.
Different Types of Dumplings:
- Drop Dumplings: These dumplings are similar to drop biscuits. Its basically a drop biscuit dough that is cooked in the broth. It creates very fluffy dumplings.
- Rolled Dumplings: or know as flat dumplings are rolled out and sliced. They are more like a real thick noodle.
- Cheater's Dumplings: these dumplings are the quickest way to make dumplings, but they are not from scratch. To make these, take canned biscuit dough and cut each biscuit into quarters.
FAQ About Chicken and Dumpling Soup
My favorite side to serve with chicken and dumpling soup is a simple green side salad. Veggie platters and crusty bread are also good options.
This recipes calls for cooking the dumplings covered. This helps trap the heat in the pot and steam the dumplings so they end up light and fluffy.
After the cook time, remove the lid and test a dumpling with a toothpick or skewer by inserting it into the middle of a dumpling. If the toothpick comes out clean with few crumbs they are done, if there is any wet dough on it, the dumplings are not done.
More Hearty and Delicious Soups:
- Chicken & Potato Stew
- Easy Zuppa Toscano Soup
- Crock Pot Ham & Potato Soup
- Split Pea Soup
- Crock Pot Beef Stew
- Turkey Noodle Soup
- Crock Pot White Chicken Chili
- Pizza Soup
- Chicken Wild Rice Soup
- Easy 3 Bean Chili
- Chicken Taco Soup
Chicken Dumpling Soup
Ingredients
Soup
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- 2 Tablespoons salted butter
- 1 small onion, diced
- 3 celery stalks, diced
- 3 large carrots, diced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- ¼ cup unbleached all purpose flour
- 8 cups chicken stock
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 2 teaspoons dried parsley
- 4 cups diced or shredded cooked chicken
- Salt and Pepper, to taste
Dumplings
- 2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 4 Tablespoons butter, melted
- 1 cup milk
- ¼ teaspoon thyme
- ½ teaspoon parsley
Instructions
Soup
- Heat oil and butter over medium heat in a large dutch oven or soup pot that has a tight fitting lid.
- Add diced onions, celery and carrots, sauté until onions are soft and translucent.
- Add garlic and saute 2 more minutes or until garlic is really fragrant.
- Add flour, thyme, and parsley, stir together well and cook for 1 minute.
- Add stock slowly while constantly stirring.
- Add chicken and season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Reduce heat to low and simmer while you make the dumplings.
Dumplings
- In a large bowl, whisk flour, salt, baking powder, parsley and thyme.
- Stir in melted butter and milk.
- Scoop or spoon and drop dumpling batter on top of soup.
- Cover pot tightly with lid and cook for 15 minutes. No Peeking!
Cheyenne Evans says
Love love love, super easy and came out tasting sooo good!
Nancy Cross says
Perfect comfort food! Absolutely delicious! I did add a bit more carrots, celery, onion and garlic as well as poultry seasoning in addition to the thyme and parsley! Yum! Will make again!
Meg says
This soup is AMAZING! I made a 1/2 batch for me and my husband and we ate almost all of it in one sitting!
I’ve tried other chicken soup recipes that were underwhelming so I’d almost given up hope finding one I could count on. But this one is a winner!
I’ve never eaten nor made dumplings and they were easy and wonderful! They puffed up so much which I didn’t expect, so I’m glad I made them small to begin with (about 1/2T).
We like heavily seasoned food so I added quite a bit more of all the seasonings plus a couple shakes of cayenne pepper.
Thanks for an amazing new family staple!
Heather says
So glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for sharing!
Angie Kiffmeyer says
Best soup recipe! I love to make it for friends that are sick or recovering from surgery.
Heather says
Thank you!! That's so nice of you! 🙂
Isabella K says
This is one of my go to recipes. Everyone I’ve made this for has loved it. It’s one of mine and my husband’s favorites!
Heather Warburton says
I'm so glad! It's my son's favorite too! Thanks for sharing!
Greg Gratz says
I am looking forward to making this over the holidays. How many dumplings does this recipe make? Can you double the recipe or would that affect cooking time and the amount of broth you might need?
Heather Warburton says
Depending on the size of scoop you are using you'll get around 24 dumplings. You can double this recipe if you have a large enough pot, but I would make separate batches so the dumplings have enough room in the pot.
Brittany says
Followed literally step by step. Turned into a thick gravy. Definitely not a soup….
Karen Sue Raymond says
I love the old fashioned comfort food recipes and this one didn't disappoint. It was delicious.
Heather Warburton says
I'm so glad you liked it! 🙂
Dawn Fern says
Heather,
I absolutely adored this soup!! I have never made chicken dumpling soup and have always wanted to. I make chicken noodle soup and many other homemade soups.
This will be a family favorite comfort food! Yummy! Thank you so much! Have to walk away or I will keep eating it! I used a Dutch Oven and rotisserie chicken. Dee Dee
Carol says
Won’t make it again, it’s more like a stew because the dumplings don’t hold, they fell apart!
Meg says
Did you use baking POWDER and not baking SODA? I only asked because I originally grabbed the wrong one from my pantry.
Lyncca says
This is easy and absolutely delish! My hubs gobbles it down. I’ve always shied away from homemade dumplings, but these were so easy! And, I’ll never go back to “biscuits” again after! We finally got the taste that we were looking for.
Heather Warburton says
Yeessss! So glad to hear this!!! Thank you for the kind words!
Rhonda Goerg says
How long in crockpot
Connie Estridge says
Do you cook the chicken before or after you’re preparing the broth?
Heather Warburton says
I will use leftover chicken, sauté the chicken first, or boil the chicken and then use that liquid as the broth. Any way is fine as long as you have cooked chicken. Hope you love it!
Jodi says
My family loves this soup. Super easy!
Cheryl Saville-Miller says
I cook for the American Legion in my hometown. I trippled the recipe and made this as my special tonight. Sold out with many saying it took them back to their mom's chicken and dumplings. I made it more like a gravy than a soup. This will be a keeper for a regular special for our customers and our vets.
Heather Warburton says
This makes me so happy! Thanks for sharing!
Vicky says
Do you add tyme and parsley to dumplings
Heather Warburton says
Yes, I've corrected the recipe card. Thank you for letting me know.
Emerson says
super easy!! and yummy!!
Heather Warburton says
Thank you! So glad you enjoyed it!