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Easy Crock Pot Chicken and Dumplings.
Juicy chicken breasts cooked to tender perfection in the slow cooker in a rich creamy sauce.
Shortcut dumplings make this deliciously comforting meal effortless for a family favorite everyone will agree on.
Chicken and Dumplings are probably the ultimate comfort food. Tender juicy shredded chicken and soft dumplings in a rich creamy brothy gravy.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Old Fashioned Chicken and Dumplings from scratch but having a busy household with kids, I know that sometimes time is short and I don’t have hours to spend cooking a full Sunday dinner from scratch.
This recipe uses a few little short cuts to make it really quick and easy to put together while not skimping on flavor.
The best part about this recipe is that it cooks up in the slow cooker all day long.
That means you can spend about 5 minutes prepping and head on out and run your errands (or go for lunch with your friends which sounds much more fun).
The slow cooker does all of the work but the results are just as amazing as a from scratch recipe (there’s a reason this recipe has a five star rating ★★★★★)!
Quick prep with optimal results is my kind of cookin’.
I use a can of premade biscuits to make the dumplings to make this dish totally effortless.
You’re going to want to roll them extra thin as they do puff up a little while they cook.
If you don’t want to use (or don’t have) canned biscuits, feel free to mix up a batch of your favorite homemade biscuits to create your own dumplings (or use Biscuit Mix).
Once you shred the chicken and stir it back in, your dumplings will break up a little bit but don’t worry; the edges soak up a bit of the sauce making for a perfect bowl of comfort.
While I know not everyone likes vegetables with their chicken and dumplings, I sure do!
I love the addition of frozen veggies for color, flavor and some extra nutrients (plus frozen veggies are pretty effortless).
If veggies in your chicken and dumplings isn’t your thing, feel free to leave them out (but don’t skip the onion, it adds lots of flavor)!
How to Make Perfect Slow Cooker Chicken and Dumplings
As easy as this recipe is, here are a few tips to make sure it turns out perfectly for you!
- This recipe is best made in a 6QT crock pot.
- While this chicken and dumplings recipe uses frozen veggies, they should be defrosted before adding to the slow cooker.
- My biscuits are always perfectly cooked after 60 minutes however some slow cookers may require extra time to cook the biscuits.
- Open the lid as little as possible as the slow cooker can lose heat quickly and this can cause your biscuits to not cook properly.
- Boneless chicken thighs make an excellent addition to this recipe.
- Once the biscuits are cooked through they should still have a soft, slightly doughy dumpling-like texture.
- Depending on the size of your slow cooker, this recipe may not double well. To double this recipe, cook the chicken portion as directed. Additional dumplings can be cooked on the stovetop or baked in the oven as biscuits.
Dairy (such as cream or milk) doesn’t always do well in the slow cooker; it can often separate or curdle so I’ve subbed in condensed soup in this recipe.
Condensed soups make a great addition to crock pot recipes as they tend to hold up very well in the slow cooker (plus they add lots of flavor to this recipe) without the risk of curdling.
Once you try this easy recipe, it’ll quickly become your go to for slow cooker chicken and dumplings.
Ensure your slow cooker is on high and the liquid should be bubbling along the edges when you open the lid to add your vegetables and biscuits.
It’s really important that you open the lid for as little time as possible and that your vegetables are completely defrosted.
Note: Buttermilk, Country or Homestyle Biscuits work best in this recipe. When adding the vegetables/biscuits ensure the lid is left off as little as possible. Leaving the lid off for long periods of time will drastically increase cooking time.
Crock Pot Chicken and Dumplings
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 large onion diced
- 10.5 ounces condensed cream of celery soup 1 can
- 10.5 ounces condensed cream of chicken soup 1 can
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
- 1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
- black pepper to taste
- 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 2 cups reduced sodium chicken broth
- 2 cups frozen vegetables or peas and carrots, thawed
- 16.3 ounces refrigerated biscuits 1 can, Buttermilk, Country, or Homestyle
Instructions
- Add onion to 6 qt crock pot and top with chicken breasts.
- In a small bowl, combine cream of celery soup, cream of chicken soup, parsley, poultry seasoning and pepper. Spread over chicken breasts. Top with chicken broth and cook on high 5 hours.
- Approximately 1 hour (I allow 60 - 90 minutes) before serving (after 4 hours of cooking time), roll each biscuit thin and flat. Cut into 4 strips. Add vegetables to the slow cooker and stir. Add biscuit strips on top. Replace lid as quickly as possible.
To Serve
- Remove chicken breasts and slightly shred. Add back into slow cooker and stir (this will break up the dumplings somewhat which is ok). Let cook an additional 10 minutes and serve.
Notes
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Dinner
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Hi! What would the cook time be if I only have thin sliced chicken breasts?
Hi Taylor, you will want to use approximately 1/5lbs of chicken. If using less you may need to cook it less. Just make sure the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165°F before serving.
so after 4 hours of cooking, you add the biscuits? and cook an additional hour?
Yes that is correct. Enjoy, Ann!
All I can say is WOW! What an absolutely easy and delicious meal! I was going to bake the biscuits separately, but my husband insisted I just follow the directions. He’s the main cook of the household so I took his advice. The only variation I made was I used regular chicken broth, not low sodium, and I added garlic salt to the chicken before I put the soups on the chicken. After a full four hours I cut up the canned buttermilk biscuits and layered them on the top of everything. I did move fast as she instructed. I let it cook and additional 90 minutes. She said 60-90 minutes and the biscuits browed up nicely at 90 minutes. When I pulled the chicken to shred it, it was already falling apart. That’s a good sign. The chicken was moist and the biscuits were exactly how dumplings should taste after they were mixed with everything. This is a legit recipe. I will be making it again! Thank you!
Easy and delish! My family loved this and can’t wait for me to make it again!
My mother made chicken n dumplings growing up, US four boys would feed the dumplings to our dog, they were so terrible, flat, no taste dough…gross ..1960ish
Then in the early 2000’s my brother invited me over for dinner, he told me we were having chicken n dumplings..ACK!! But, they were nothing like when I was a kid, they were ‘drop dumplings’ ..a chicken stew was prepared as normal, the dumplings were flour, baking powder, salt, pepper and milk/egg mixture, these were steamed in a basket UNCOVERED for ten minutes, then COVERED for an additional 10 minutes, they were like biscuits..oh..an addition was added to the chicken stew,…..SAFFRON…This added so much more flavor..
This was very good! We also love Mississippi Pot Roast, but aside from that have had a hard time finding any recipes for a slow cooker that deliver a really good meal. My husband was thoroughly impressed, so were my daughter and I. Do cook the biscuits on the sides, personal preference. Only other deviance is we also add white pepper in addition to the black pepper.