I often do the Bisquick dumplings too, but scratch only takes a few minutes more. I don't use a recipe for chicken and dumplings but this Taste of Home recipe is very much like I make it. Close to what Gardengal does but always with garlic, and I slightly brown the celery, carrots, onions adding the garlic last to the skillet...I'm the dumpling fan in this household while DH prefers the chicken mixture over rice or noodles. Still, we have it my way...I do love dumplings and chicken. Many times we'll have the chicken with the dumplings one night, then will reheat the chicken mixture and he can have it with his rice the second night.
I like to thicken the chicken mixture with just a little cream or half&half just before serving.

Taste of Home chicken and dumplings

I buy the small boxes of Jiffy Biscuit Mix to make dumplings. Very good and light.

I eyeball all this, so don't have amounts to give you, but I figure you know what you like and how much and can make it the way you want it. I start by simmering bone in chicken thighs (but you can also use the white meat - Houzz filters don't like the "B" word) until tender and a broth has developed. I add bay leaves, garlic, celery tops, a chopped onion and salt/pepper to the water the chicken is simmering in. Once the chicken is done, I remove it and strain the broth.

Return the strained broth to the pot. Add potatoes and carrots that have been chopped into one inch pieces. Simmer on low heat; when nearly tender add whatever veggies you usually add to a stew. We like turnips, coarsely chopped onion, celery and green beans. Sometimes I put in peas instead of the green beans. While veggies are simmering, remove skin and bones from the chicken cut into stew meat size pieces about 1 - 1.5 inches. When veggies are tender add chicken pieces and simmer until chicken is heated through.

At this point, you can choose to leave the broth as is or you can thicken it. We like a broth that is somewhere between a thin broth and a gravy, so I thicken with flour and water. This is also the time to adjust seasonings if necessary.

I use an herb dumpling recipe I found in one of my Mom's old cookbooks.

Dumplings

1 1/2 C flour

1 t salt

1 t baking soda

2 t baking powder

1 t dried parsley

1 t dried marjoram (the original recipe called for oregano, but I love marjoram so use it instead

1/2 t dried thyme

1 T chopped fresh chives

Sage can also be added, but it is a strong herb so use sparingly. I don't usually put it in my dumplings.

3 T butter

3/4 C milk

In a bowl, mix the flour,
salt, baking soda, baking powder, thyme, parsley, and oregano. Cut in
butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Gradually add milk,
using just enough to form a thick batter. It will be kind of sticky.

Drop by rounded tablespoons into simmering stew, cover pot and simmer for 15 minutes. An ice cream scoop works well for this step if you have one. Do NOT peek while dumplings are cooking!

Serve and enjoy.

This also makes great leftovers and now I want some chicken and dumplings. Going to add that to my list of meals to make in the near future.

These are great!!!! Thank you so much!!! I'll be making the dumplings instead of buying a mix.

I have fresh thyme, basil and rosemary and this is a perfect way to use them.

I'm so excited! :-D

Just a thought...sometimes the broth does not come out as flavorful as you

had hoped... sometimes adding extra chicken broth will help. I always have

some on hand just in case. Sure sounds good.

I pretty much do the same as the above except that I add some frozen veggies. My Mom never did that but I like it. It's also very important to thicken the broth some - it keeps the dumplings from sinking to the bottom.

Rachel Ray has an awesome chicken and dumpling recipe that I make and you can always make the home made dumpling recipe above. I also use the jiffy or bisquick recipe. Either way they will taste yummy!

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/chicken-and-dumplings-recipe-1940955

Interesting....my mother did it her own way....not sure it's the best ( I do the more traditional method) she simmered chicken pieces with onions, celery, bay leaf and likely some thyme from the garden.....and when the chicken was tender, she removed the pieces from the broth, cooled the broth and skimmed off the fat and strained the limp veggies....browned the chicken pieces in a little of the skimmed off fat and returned it to the pot with the strained and skimmed broth, added whole pearl onions from a can, carrots and peas and when the mix came to a boil the dumplings (made from bisquick) and simmered.......and the dumplings had lots and lots of chopped fresh parsley added.
The once crisp chicken skin became "floppy" although browned....but the browning did add flavor to the broth.

I have never needed to thicken the broth. Adding the dumpling dough usually does a perfectly decent job of it!!

I am also very select about adding any other veg. To me, this is not chicken stew but just chicken and dumplings. I will fix some other veg to go along with rather than just frozen or the overcooked broth veggies!! And in defense of Bisquick dumplings, I have made them from scratch as well but actually prefer the consistency and flavor of the Bisquick ones more.

I guess it just depends what you are used to :-)

Yes, so true, gardengal. I always find it interesting how many different ways there are to do the same thing and how widely varied our tastes and preferences are. :-)

Gardengal, I'm not slamming the use of Bisquick. I just don't want to buy a box and have the rest of it go unused in the cupboard. I make biscuits fairly often, but always from scratch.

And your comment about the dumplings thickening the liquid, I'm pretty sure that's how it was with Nan, the dough made the broth kind of thick all on its own.

Friend makes hers with tortilla strips.

I also make biscuits from scratch....when I do make them (rarely). But I find the Bisquick mix very handy for making scones and shortcakes in strawberry season. Those and the dumplings are about the only way I use the stuff.

Here's a link to my similar ask several years ago. I've made several of the versions offered, all good, and I've made pkramer's spicy one a number of times. It's become a family favorite. Sometimes I make it with biscuitier dumplings (for variety), sometimes as stated.

Just got to add my two cents to this thread, chicken and dumplings are one of my favorite foods! I also love dumplings in beef stew. And then there is Ham and Dumplings. . . . But that would probably be another thread.

Bisquick dumplings are good, and I'm sure the 'scratch' recipes above are, too, but here is my very favorite recipe for them. They are light, fluffy, melt-in-your mouth tender, very flavorful. A little different, and a little more trouble than 'regular' dumplings, but very well worth it, in my opinion, anyhow.

Dumplings

1 ½ Sticks butter

2 C water

2 C sifted all purpose flour

1 tsp salt*

4 eggs

1/4 to ½ C flour

* I like to use a seasoned salt. Morton’s Nature’s Seasoning when making chicken & dumplings, or garlic salt for beef stew with dumplings. For ham & dumplings I omit the salt entirely, they pick up enough from the ham broth.

In medium saucepan, bring water to boil. Add butter to melt. Add flour and salt all at once, stir and continue to cook until mixture leaves sides of pan. Remove from heat, allow to cool slightly. Add the 4 eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition, (Be sure each egg is well incorporated into the flour mixture before adding the next one.) Your electric mixer is your friend here, those eggs need to be well beaten into the mixture.

For the flatter, strip dumplings, turn dough out onto floured work surface (you may want to do this in sections, about a third at a time.) And pat out with floured hands or use rolling pin. Cut into strips, about 1" X 2". (Or get fancy and make whatever shape you like, squares, diamonds, etc.)

If you prefer drop dumplings, skip the rolling out step, and just drop dough by the spoonful into gently simmering broth. (A cookie dough scoop is great for this). Cover and cook until done, about 8 or 10 min.

These dumplings will absolutely melt in your mouth!

For the chicken, I use parts, mainly leg quarters. Simmer it slowly with onion, celery, carrots and parsley. salt and pepper (I prefer white pepper with chicken) to taste, until tender. Debone, add back into broth, add dumplings, simmer until dumplings are done. . . . .

Voila! ! ! A big pot of deliciousness! !

Rusty

P.S. My late husband didn't much like chicken in any way shape or form, and he claimed not to like dumplings, but once I started making these, he could scarf up a big bowl of them and ask for seconds. But he wouldn't touch that "slimy chicken", as he called it. So I always battered and fried a couple of pieces of white meat for him on the nights I served chicken and dumplings.

gardengal makes is sound so simple...I love chicken and dumplings but have never attempted to make them.

I can't add anything because I haven't made them but my mother made the very best ones I ever tasted. That's a real PA Dutch dish but I see a Canadian one as well. Best comfort food ever!!

At our house, so long ago, it was always made with a stewing hen. Made a very flavorful broth. One of my favorite childhood dinners. The best substitute now would be a big roasting chicken.

I'm sure your dumplings will be wonderful Jasdip - and happy Canadian Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends here : )

I can't find my recipe. I did use AnnT's recipe for the 'slider' dumpkings. Yep, I like mine slick and flat. DH likes his fluffy, and yes, I've made those also, and also using AnnT's recipe for fluffy dumplings.

...Houzz still won't let me edit, and though I know you all knew what I was trying to type, I didn't want to leave it as "AnnT's recipe for slider dumpKINGS" LOL! Dumplings, obviously.

My Mom always used Bisquick for dumplings, biscuits, pancakes, whatever. I think it was because she was a "modern" cook in the 50's and 60's who knew how to do it the old fashioned way but was all for anything that made her life simpler. She made the fluffy ones not the rolled ones. I never even knew there were rolled ones until I was grown. She also used self-rising flour and self-rising corn meal mix. She never put vegetables in her chicken and dumplings though, but I do. I'm just not crazy about plain old stewed chicken. I guess it's because she also many times just plopped a chicken in a pot and stewed it with nothing but salt and pepper, skin still on. When I looked into that pot with that pale, amoebic chicken floating in there with that flabby skin I just wanted to gag.

Mom made the fluffy bisquick dumplings on top of her pot roast -- delicious. She never made dumplings with chicken, or any chicken stew. Just baked chicken pieces or chicken soup.

Rusty, I'm saving your recipe. It reminds me of choux pastry -- very interesting. I've been in a cooking rut lately ... now need to decide: chicken or beef for the stew....

"gardengal makes is sound so simple..."

It really is that simple! If you can make chicken soup, you can make chicken and dumplings. Just find a recipe you like best for the dumplings. And if you use Bisquick, they don't get much simpler!!

Sorry, but those slimy, flat things are not dumplings in my book. Dumplings need to be soft and fluffy.....big pillowy balls :-)

A suggestion because sometimes chicken and dumplings liquid flavor is just flat because the chicken used is younger. I use the granular bouillon or stock to add a little flavor. I used to use the cubes or added the already prepared broth. The first was had to control the salt amount and the second had to be cooked down to condense the flavor. Since I liked to have pieces of chicken cooking things down tended, for me, to remove the flavor of the actual chicken giving you a good liquid but flavorless chicken. I used the chicken that was already cut up rather than a whole chicken because the cut up pieces appeared to be from older birds that would provide more flavor.

"Sorry, but those slimy, flat things are not dumplings in my book. Dumplings need to be soft and fluffy.....big pillowy balls :-)" I think that's why most people call them 'sliders' : ) FWIW, I can see why flattened dough would not be called a dumpling. To each their own dumpling - or slider ; )

Once, and only once, I made chicken and dumplings in a crock pot (no problems there) that used those Pillsbury dough crescent rolls as dumplings. This was eons and eons ago, before I become comfy with bread and pasta making. They just absorbed the gravy/broth and turned into globs of wet, uncooked dough. Now that's not a dumpling!

According to the Betty Crocker website, Bisquik's ingredients are: Enriched Flour Bleached (wheat flour, niacin, iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), Partially Hydrogenated Soybean and/or Cottonseed Oil, Leavening (baking soda, sodium aluminum phosphate, monocalcium phosphate), Dextrose, Salt. Other sites list more chemicals, but I don't know if that's old info or what. I seem to remember from my childhood, when my mother didn't make stuff out of Bisquik, but would use a spoonful here or there to improve something, was that it was just flour, bp and salt.

There's more oil than baking powder or salt, but that's the big difference between scratch and Bisquik--cutting some fat into the dry ingredients ahead of time. And more salt than I'd ever use, but some people like salty biscuits.

The recipe for make your own on Allrecipes is 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon butter, shortening or oil. Mix dry well and cut in fat with a pastry blender. This one doesn't have the sugar, but it's not enough sugar to taste, I don't think, so is probably used as a preservative or something.

While I don't like the quantity of salt, I'm not snobby about it if people want to use Bisquik, or prefer it. Some people don't like to put a lot of plain salt in foods, but will add parm rinds, or parm, or bouillon paste or cubes to "add flavor", which is mostly more salt. Sometimes salty is a good thing!

It's easy making the substitute if you want to use a recipe that calls for Bisquik but you don't have any, but nothing wrong with using Bisquik if that suits you.

I think I'm the only one who prefers the flat, homemade "dumplings" here. lol. My recipe is very basic, not a bunch of different seasonings. Chicken, broth, bullion, pepper, a stick of butter (real butter), and dumplings are made with flour, a little salt, and water. I make it starting with a whole chicken and let the bone and skin flavor it. I remove most of the skin at the end, before putting the dumplings in, though, because my daughter doesn't like it. I do. It's kind of a pain having to sift out all the tiny bones and undesirable things but the end product is delicious. I only make this about once a year because it isn't the healthiest meal.

I make Chicken and Dumpling in my pressure cooker! So yummy. I also use Jiffy Mix for my dumplings.

To me the flat "dumplings" are just thick noodles.

I can not begin to imagine the size or how few dumplings using only one cup of flour would make. With the 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder I wonder if the 1 cup was an error. Most recipes I looked at call for two cups of flour.

While you can cutout biscuits to make things pretty I prefer dropped dumplings.

Flour tortillas make the perfect dumplings - so easy and delicious and they turn out perfectly every time.

Like Kathy, we used Jiffy Mix for dumplings, and Grandma made banana bread with the recipe on the box too, gave it to the school bus drivers and the mailman every year for Christmas, LOL. Jiffy Mix is a Michigan product and so it was cheaper than Bisquick.

I also like the big puffy dumplings, and make them from scratch. I like AnnT's recipe a lot, but now I'm going to have to try Rusty's, it sounds really good.

My Southern husband, though, DETESTS chicken and dumplings. His sister makes them for every holiday and he cringes, LOL. He says he'll never eat another one, so if I make any it'll have to be for Mother or someone else!

Annie

I grew up with fluffy dumplings too. When I made it for BF, he said it wasn't chicken & dumplings. He's from the south and his idea of c & b is what I'd call chicken & thick noodles. :)

Rusty's dumplings are pâte à choux. The same dough as profiteroles, eclairs, cream puffs, churros, croque-en-bouche, etc. I've never done them steamed/boiled, but I think they sound fantastic! I'm going to have to try that.

It's interesting about the fluff vs. flat debate. My mother would make biscuit topping for shepherd's pie, but it was never called dumpling. Dumplings were dough balls boiled in broth. They could also be spaetzle, which are long and bumpy, rather than balls, but the same kind of dough. I'd never met biscuits as dumplings until this group. I'm guessing the flat noodly ones are more like our dough balls even though they're big and flat.

Yes, "my" dumplings are a choux dough. But please don't boil them! Simmer them, very gently! I hope you enjoy them! I ease my conscience about eating them by telling myself they are much more nutritious than most dumplings because of the eggs in them. :^)

Rusty

I've seen choux pastry dumplings called French gnocchi. I really want to try those, Rusty!

I completely overlooked that! They are pate a choux! Ok, count me as another who needs to try this some day. I'm fascinated, as I've never seen it used as a dumpling and just googled Zalco's French gnocchi - incredible! There's a whole world of doughs I've never tried.... sigh.

Beignets first though... :D

And then there are matzo balls.....which really are dumplings....both sinkers and floaters.

You mean dough balls boiled in broth?

After being raised on fluffy dumplings, I made a version of Rusty's a few years ago. I think it was a Bobby Flay recipe. I've been hooked ever since.