Chicken Dumpling Soup – Rachel Cooks®

While homemade chicken noodle soup is practically synonymous with comfort food, I’d argue that this chicken dumpling soup is even more comforting. Hear me out!

You’ve got a lot of the same ingredients—the vegetables and, of course, the chicken. But instead of noodles, this soup has tender, fluffy dumplings floating on top. Plus, it’s creamy! That makes this chicken dumpling soup recipe extra filling and cozy. (For another comforting creamy soup, try this creamy chicken rice soup.)

This is the perfect winter dinner for those days when it’s dark at 5:00 PM and no matter how many layers you wear, you’re still cold. It’s the perfect lunch to make for your kids when they come inside with rosy cheeks after spending all morning building snow forts and zooming down the neighborhood sledding hill. Like I said: total comfort food.

Creamy Chicken and Dumplings

Hearty and satisfying. This is a soup that will warm you up and fill you up thanks to the rich, creamy broth and fabulous dumplings. It’s packed with chicken and vegetables so you don’t need anything extra to make it a complete meal.

Easy to make. Adding dumplings to soup makes it feel extra special and I think making dumplings is kind of fun. They really are quite easy to make and not fussy at all. This is a great recipe to get kids to help with.

Versatile. You’d be surprised how many little tweaks you can make to put your own spin on chicken dumpling soup. I share some ideas later in this post.

Ingredient Notes

• Mirepoix: Carrots, celery, and onion are also known as mirepoix and they form the base of the flavor in this soup. They’re sautéed in a bit of olive oil, or any mild flavored cooking oil, and seasoned with salt and pepper.
• Garlic: There’s just enough to make this chicken and dumpling soup flavorful without making the garlic flavor dominant.
• Chicken broth: Using low-sodium broth puts you in control of how much salt is in the recipe. If you want to use regular broth, skip the added salt and then season to taste at the very end.
• Boneless skinless chicken thighs: I like using chicken thighs because they’re less likely to overcook than chicken breasts. If you prefer white meat, feel free to use boneless skinless chicken breasts instead.
• Herbs: I like to use dried thyme, a bay leaf, and crushed rosemary to season the soup. I add fresh parsley, too, which has so much more flavor than dried parsley.
• Frozen peas: They’ll thaw in the soup, so there’s no need to thaw them first.
• Heavy cream and cornstarch: These two ingredients give this soup a rich, creamy finish. It’s best if the cream is at room temperature so take it out of the fridge when you begin the recipe, along with the milk for the dumplings, so both have a chance to warm up.

Dumplings

• All-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt: These three essentials are used for most types of baking, and also for dumplings.
• Parsley or Chives: Finely chopped herbs add colorful flecks of green to the dumplings. You could omit the herbs if you have picky eaters.
• Whole milk: Although you can use any type of milk, whole milk will yield a better flavored dumpling.
• Unsalted butter: Melt the butter in the microwave or a small saucepan.

How to Make Chicken Dumpling Soup

Get ready. Take the heavy cream and the milk out of the refrigerator, measure out the amounts you need, and let them come to room temperature (this helps it not curdle when you add it to the hot soup). Chop the veggies, herbs, and garlic.

Sweat the veggies. Cook the carrots, celery, and onion with the oil in a pan over medium heat. Season them with salt and pepper. You only want to cook the vegetables to soften them—not brown them. Stir in the garlic and cook until it’s fragrant.

Bring to a boil. Pour in the broth, then add the chicken and dry herbs. Increase the heat to high; once it comes to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer. 

Simmer. Cover the pan and cook for 30 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through and the veggies are tender.

Make the dumpling dough. Near the end of the 30 minutes, whisk together the flour, baking powder, parsley, and salt in a bowl. Stir in the milk and butter until the mixture comes together to form a sticky dough. 

Shred the chicken. Remove the chicken from the soup and transfer the chicken to a plate. Find and discard the bay leaf. Increase the heat to medium-high. Shred the chicken and stir it back into the soup, along with the frozen peas and parsley.

Make it creamy. Mix the heavy cream with the cornstarch, then slowly stir this into the soup. Reduce the heat to medium-low.

Add the dumplings. Drop tablespoon-size portions of dough into the simmering soup. Let them float on the top—don’t stir them in!—and cover the pan to let them steam for 15 minutes. They’ll rise, almost like a biscuit, and become fluffy and light.

Finish. Season the chicken dumpling soup to taste and serve. 

Tips and Variations

Don’t overmix the dumpling dough. If you mix the dough too vigorously, the gluten will over-develop and leave you with tough dumplings. It’s fine to have a few streaks of flour left in the dough. The dough will be very sticky.

Add wine. If you’d like, you can use white wine in this chicken and dumplings recipe. Reduce the amount of broth to 2 ½ cups, then pour in ½ cup of dry white wine after adding the garlic. Let it reduce by half before adding the broth.

Use a different protein. Incorporate leftover turkey after Thanksgiving, use chickpeas or cannellini beans and vegetable broth to make it vegetarian, or use shredded meat from a rotisserie chicken to shorten the cooking time.

Incorporate different vegetables. If you like parsnips, they add a nice flavor to chicken dumpling soup—just add them with the mirepoix. Not a fan of peas? Swap them for frozen cut green beans or corn. 

Refrigerate: Although it’s a bit fussy, I highly recommend storing the dumplings separately from the soup. This will keep them from absorbing too much liquid and becoming completely mushy. Use a slotted spoon to remove them from the soup and store them in a separate airtight container. Refrigerate the dumplings and soup for up to 3 days.

Freeze: Creamy soups don’t freeze well; they tend to separate when you reheat them and become grainy in texture. If you want to freeze this soup, I recommend not using the cream. You can thicken the soup by mixing the cornstarch with a ½ cup of broth or water, then add the mixture to the soup as directed. If you are planning on freezing the soup, you could make and add the dumplings after you reheat it.

Reheat: Warm the soup on the stovetop over medium heat. Once the chicken soup is warm, add the dumplings, cover, and cook until they’re heated through.

• Measure out ½ cup cream for the soup and ½ cup milk for the dumplings; let both come to room temperature while you cook the soup.

• Heat a large pan (with available cover) over medium heat. Add oil, carrots, celery, onion, salt and pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, until onions are translucent, 5 to 6 minutes. Add garlic and continue to cook, stirring, for 1 minute.

  1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 ½ cups diced carrots, 1 cup diced celery, ½ cup diced onion, ½ teaspoon kosher salt, ¼ teaspoon coarse ground black pepper, 2 cloves garlic, minced

• Add broth, chicken, thyme, bay leaf, and rosemary and increase heat to high. Bring to a boil, and then reduce to a simmer (medium-low heat).

  3 cups low sodium chicken broth, 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs, ½ teaspoon dried thyme, 1 bay leaf, ¼ teaspoon crushed rosemary

• Cook, covered, for 30 minutes or until chicken is cooked through and vegetables are tender.

• Toward the end of the cooking time, make the dough for the dumplings by combining the flour, baking powder, parsley, and salt in a medium bowl. Add milk and melted butter; stir gently to combine.

  ¾ cup + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder, 1 tablespoon chopped parsley, ⅛ teaspoon kosher salt, 1 ½ tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, ½ cup whole milk, at room temperature

• Remove chicken to a plate, and remove bay leaf. Increase heat to medium high. Use two forks to shred chicken into bite-sized pieces.

• Stir peas, parsley, and shredded chicken into soup.

  1 cup frozen peas, ¼ cup minced fresh parsley

• Combine heavy cream and cornstarch in a small bowl; stir mixture into hot broth.

  3 tablespoons cornstarch, ½ cup heavy cream, at room temperature

• Reduce heat to medium low. Add dumpling dough to soup by tablespoon-sized scoops (8 to 10 dumplings); they should float on top, don’t stir them into the soup. Cover the pan and cook for 15 minutes or until dumplings are cooked through.

• Taste the soup, add more salt and pepper, if desired.

• Chicken broth: If you don’t use low sodium chicken broth, omit salt from the recipe. When soup is ready, check the seasonings and season to taste. 
• Add wine: If you like, add ½ cup dry white wine to this recipe. After cooking the garlic, stir in the wine, cook 3 to 4 minutes, or until reduced by half. Reduce chicken broth to 2 ½ cups. Continue with recipe as instructed.
• Storage:
  • Refrigerate: I highly recommend storing the dumplings separately from the soup to keep them from absorbing too much liquid and becoming mushy. Refrigerate the dumplings and soup for up to 3 days.
  • Freeze: If you want to freeze this soup, I recommend not using the cream. You can thicken the soup by mixing the cornstarch with a ½ cup of broth or water, then add the mixture to the soup as directed. If you are planning on freezing the soup, you could make and add the dumplings after you reheat it.
  • Reheat: Warm the soup on the stovetop over medium heat. Once the chicken soup is warm, add the dumplings, cover, and cook until they’re heated through.

Serving: 2cups, Calories: 447kcal, Carbohydrates: 29g, Protein: 37g, Fat: 20g, Saturated Fat: 9g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g, Monounsaturated Fat: 7g, Trans Fat: 0.1g, Cholesterol: 176mg, Sodium: 572mg, Potassium: 789mg, Fiber: 3g, Sugar: 5g, Vitamin A: 6327IU, Vitamin C: 18mg, Calcium: 154mg, Iron: 3mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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