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.
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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I started making this today to find that my Crock-Pot was not working, so I did it on the stove top. Cooked onion in a bit of butter, then added chicken and cooked it for about 35 min. Pulled it out and added the soup, vegetables, seasonings and broth. After it started to boil I added chicken then the dumplings that I rolled out using a bit of flour on the board. This thickened the soup, so I added more broth. It was delicious!! My husband had seconds and thirds.
I had no trouble understanding the recipe, but couldn’t follow the Crock-Pot method. Thanks for the SUPER GOOD recipe.
I am so glad that you were able to make this despite the crock pot trouble!
Turin out great tips about biscuits rolled thin was very helpful
Im wondering exactly when i should be adding the vegetables? At the beginning as the recipe states or in the last hour as i keep seeing in the comments?
I have only made the recipe exactly as written and it works out perfectly for me.
Kudos to you, what an amazing meal! Loved it!
I am so glad you like it Cat!
My neighbor made this for my husband while I was sick. He loved it, once I felt better she shared the recipe source. I have made it three times now, we both love it. Wonderful comfort food
I am so glad your family has enjoyed this recipe!
I make this with fresh carrots and green beans since my hubby doesn’t like peas I put that in there along while the chicken is cooking so yummy
I made this and changed it up a bit because of some likes and health reasons. I used skinless boneless chicken thighs, my husband likes more than chicken breasts and I used butter nut squash which I put on top of the onions instead of carrots. It was delicious, next time I will probably cut the poultry seasoning down 3/4 or one half rather than a whole. Again, my husband and his likes.. I loved it.
I added potatoes, carrots, celery & broccolis on top of the chicken. It was delicious. Everything was cooked very well.
Absolutely delicious! I did have to substitute since I didn’t have some ingredients. I used chicken thighs, baby carrots cut into smaller chunks and some soaked dried lady peas. Seasonings consisted of salt, pepper and garlic. I made my own dumplings as well. I also prefer cream of mushroom soup to any others.
Overall it’s delicious and something I would make for the other chicken-eaters in the family. The husband can’t eat it cause chicken don’t agree with him but the rest of the family likes it, so it’s likely going to be made again around Thanksgiving. Not sure if I rated right, so I’m putting here that I gave it five stars.
I made this recipe for dinner yesterday and it was amazing!
The only things I did differently were:
-Used regular chicken broth
-I didn’t have poultry seasoning so I used cream of chicken with herbs
-used 2 large chicken breasts instead of 4
I wouldn’t have done anything differently. My boyfriend insisted that he doesn’t like chicken and dumplings until I fed him this and now he can’t get enough. He said 10/10!
This was great! I made it just as the recipe states (I’m perplexed by some of the comments…a lot of the questions asked are clearly answered if one reads through the entire recipe before attempting to make). I was leery that some flavor would be lost with no dairy products and it was not. I like that this is something I can keep everything on hand for in my pantry and freezer since I rarely have dairy products like cream, 1/2 & 1/2 or milk on hand.
My crockpot cooked this quite a bit faster than the time stated in the recipe (which may be due to using thin cut chicken breasts), so I’d suggest anyone making it for the first time, to pay attention to time. I’d make this again in a heartbeat. Thanks so much for a comfort food recipe that isn’t a complete calorie bomb!
Thank you for sharing your tips Renee! I’m so glad you loved it. :)
This was such an easy recipe, my husband and I absolutely loved it. I will be making this again. Thank you
Just made this and mine is very watery. Not thick at all. Followed instructions exactly. Hmmm
I followed the recipe to a T and it came out perfect. It is so yummy and I would have to say that it is a keeper. The chicken was moist and tender and the dumplings tasted great. I’d say it feeds about six. It definitely earned its’ five stars and I would highly recommend it.
So glad you loved it Todd!
Very good, I love it
Is this a thick gravy or runny? I’m 3 hours in and it’s very runny/liquidy.
It should thicken up a bit, the biscuits will soak up some of the liquid.
so good, and easy..will make again
That’s great to her Luann!
I want a half recipe for this. I know how to half everything but is the cooking time the same?
Im a man and i love to cook….this recipe is great…its cooking now and the only difference was i used fresh carrot and added them at the beginning…ive done this befor and it was great….thanx
Made this yesterday. So easy and delicious! I’m a single lady so I’m going to try freezing some individual servings to have later on. Thank you!
So glad you loved it Ann!