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
Cuisine American© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
Can this recipe be doubled? If so, does the cook time change?
I haven’t tried doubling this recipe however it does fill the slow cooker quite full so I can’t say for sure how it would work.
Delicious!! I made it for the first time tonight. I added 2 cups peas because we love them and I sliced up a pound of baby carrots but, otherwise kept the recipe intact. Thank you for publishing this recipe
I’m so glad you enjoyed it Rhonda!
Dumplings didn’t wrk for me. But nice meal, anyway. Thanks!
I’m sorry they didn’t work out for you John.
Didn’t care for it at all. The poultry seasoning was a little overpowering. I’ll stick with a stove top version in the future.
I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy this, it’s one of our favorites!
Awesome!!!! The wife loved it. Followed the recipe as written and it was delicious!! Thanks for sharing. I hope you have a wonderful holiday season.
I’m so glad you and your wife loved it Mike! Wishing you and your family a wonderful holiday too!
Making this recipe for the second time today. Very simple and easy to make…and, of course, tasty! LOVE IT!!
I’m so glad you loved it!
How do I cut the recipe down I want to only use 2 chicken breasts. Would really appreciate any help.
You could half all of the other ingredients and just use one cream of chicken soup.
It’s in the Crock-Pot now! I am excited to try it.
I cooked this for my family yesterday and they LOVED it! Looks like you’ve got some other really good recipes on this site. Can’t wait to try them, too. Thank you!
So glad your family enjoyed it Jeanette
This recipe is perfect, my fiancé asks for it all the time on these cold Germany nights. Nothing needs to be altered. A bazillion thumbs up
I’m so glad you and your finance love it!
I just made this and it turned out perfect! Tasted great. Real comfort food. Definitely a keeper! Thank you!
So glad you loved it Charlene!
I want to say Thank you! I have made these twice, tonight was really good.
I’m glad you enjoyed this recipe Karla!
I was just wondering how many pounds of chicken does the recipe call for. It just says 4 boneless chicken breasts.
That would be approximately 1.5lbs.
Thanks for providing the weight as breast sizes can vary. For me, this actually was one half breast from a local market. The breasts were huge and two halves (left and right breast) was 3 lbs…Glad to know I’m on target! I went with just under 1.5 lb and shredded and seems proportionate to the gravy/sauce and vegetables. I went with a bag mix (10 oz) of broccoli, cauliflower and carrots and 1 cup (8 oz) frozen sweet white corn.
Seeing so many questions on how many chicken breasts, may want to edit the recipe to reflect a weight in parenthesis as breast halves vary in size.
Wait so I cook the biscuits in the oven first then put them in the crockpot?
The biscuits are not prebaked.
Holly,
Thank you for sharing your recipe ideas! I am new to cooking and this is my first “crock-pot” recipe. I decided to tweak it just a little by substituting my Thanksgiving Turkey (plenty) leftovers that I had frozen for sandwiches.
Can’t wait for the kids to experience this great meal!
God bless you,
Steve
Using leftover turkey is a great idea! Enjoy your crock pot, it’s one of my favorite ways to prepare a meal!
I’ve been cooking the biscuits for over an hour and they are still mushy what can I do?
Hmm, I’m not sure why your biscuits took longer to cook, is your slow cooker turned up to high? (it could be that your slow cooker runs at a lower temperature).
Was wondering about how many pounds of chicken you used? I have some tenderloins in my fridge I am hoping I could use in this recipe.
That would be approximately 1.5lbs.
Best chicken and dumplings ever! So easy to make too. My family loved it and were fighting over the leftovers. Thanks so much for sharing the recipe. The only thing that I did different was to cut the biscuits into more pieces than suggested. I’m excited to make it again!
I”m so glad your family loved this recipe!
Going to fix for dinner tonight. However we don’t eat onions do u recommend a seasoning to replace for the flavor. Would onion powder work..and if so howuch do I recommend.
Yes, I would suggest about 1 teaspoon of onion powder.
My family doesn’t like onions either. I put onions in a chopper so they would not be detectable. They absolutely LOVED this dinner! No one even knew it had onions because they couldn’t see them.
I’m making this right now!! Can’t wait for dinner tonight!