This southern chicken and dumplings recipe uses rotisserie chicken and other convenient ingredients to make it one of the easiest chicken and dumplings recipes you’ll come across. Thanks to a healthy dumplings recipe, every serving has just 280 calories, 5 WW Smart Points, and 8 grams of fat.
And if you’re intimidated by the thought of making your own dumplings, chill. There’s zero dough rolling required. Just mix a handful of ingredients together and pinch pieces of the dough off to throw in the chicken soup. Seriously, it’s super easy!
Southern Chicken and Dumplings Ingredients
There are two groups of ingredients—the chicken soup and the dumplings.
While you’ll want to stick to the dumplings recipe as closely as possible, you can take liberties with the chicken soup. Here’s everything you’ll need for the soup with a few notes:
Chicken Soup Ingredients
- Veggies: onion, carrots, garlic, peas* – awesome for flavor, but you can get by without any or all
- Rotisserie chicken – you can use any cooked chicken (Costco even sells pre-shredded rotisserie chicken) or cook your own chicken breast before cooking the vegetables
- Chicken broth
- Condensed cream of chicken soup – you might try the grated parmesan and milk from my Dutch oven chicken pot pie as a replacement
- Seasoning: black pepper, sage, nutmeg, bay leaves – same as veggies – include if possible but not a lost cause without them
*For an example of using frozen vegetables, check out my crescent roll chicken pot pie.
It’s really tough to mess up on the chicken soup portion of this recipe. Don’t sweat it if you’re missing an ingredient or want to make a substitution.
I’ll also add that the seasoning blend was inspired by my chicken breakfast sausage recipe that people seem to really love. So get some of those ingredients in if you can!
Healthy Dumplings Ingredients
If you’ve tried my Greek yogurt biscuits, surprise, this southern chicken and dumplings recipe uses the exact same recipe minus the egg yolk wash. Here’s what you’ll need:
- all purpose flour
- sugar substitute (or granulated sugar)
- baking powder and salt
- light butter and fat free Greek yogurt
Easy peasy, Greek yogurt dough squeezy.
How to Make the Chicken Soup
The most difficult part of this recipe will be vegetable prep (and I guess removing the chicken meat). If you wanted to use precut veggies, I wouldn’t judge.
After you’re prepped and ready to go, it’s smooth sailing. Simply cook the onion and carrots in a bit of olive oil until they’re soft.
Side note: You’ll notice I used a Ninja Foodi for to make my chicken and dumplings, which is a pressure cooker (like an Instant Pot), slow cooker, and an air fryer all-in-one. I love this piece of equipment, and you can check it out on my Amazon list if you want to learn more. That said, you can definitely make these chicken and dumplings on the stovetop.
Then add the garlic and other dry seasoning. Cook that for about a minute until fragrant and add the chicken, broth, soup, and bay leaves.
Stir and bring to a boil while you prepare the dumplings.
How to Make the Dumplings
If you thought the biscuits were easy, these dumplings are even easier since you don’t have to form the dough into anything. Just make a big ol’ ball of dumpling dough and divide it into small pieces.
So you can make uniform dumplings, I’ve included the total weight of the dough. You can divide the total weight by the number of dumplings you want for precision.
Note: I used a stand mixer (also on my Amazon list) to mix the dumpling dough, but you can use a food processor like I did for my cast iron pizza or by hand.
To cook the dumplings, I used the pressure cooker function on the Ninja Foodi. If you’re using a pot on the stove, simply cover it and simmer for 15-20 minutes. Neither way is superior, though the pressure cooker is a little bit faster.
Final Southern Chicken and Dumplings Recipe Notes
Just to reiterate on the chicken soup portion—you can make just about any substitution.
Want a creamier soup? Use an extra can of cream of chicken or reduce the amount of chicken broth used.
Want to use cubed chicken pieces instead of shredded? Do it.
If you like making high protein meals with rotisserie chicken, I have more! Check out my Thai curry soup, lasagna, or chicken parmesan sandwiches next.
Have fun! Just be sure to let me know what you think about your chicken and dumplings!
Southern Chicken and Dumplings
Ingredients
- 1 Tbsp Olive Oil
- 1 medium Yellow Onion, diced
- 3 medium Carrots, peeled and sliced
- 2 cloves Garlic, peeled and minced
- 8.5 oz can Sweet Peas, drained
- 1 lb Rotisserie Chicken, meat only without skin
- 32 oz Reduced Sodium Chicken Stock
- 10.5 oz can Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup
- 1/2 tsp Ground Sage
- 1/2 tsp Black Pepper
- 1/2 tsp Nutmeg
- 2 Bay Leaves
For the Dumplings
- 1 1/2 C 180g All Purpose Flour
- 2 Tbsp 24g Granulated Sugar Substitute*
- 1/2 Tbsp Baking Powder
- 1/2 tsp Kosher Salt
- 2 Tbsp 28g Light Butter**
- 3/4 C 170g Fat Free Greek Yogurt
Instructions
- For the Chicken Soup
- Prepare the vegetables and remove the breast meat from the rotisserie chicken. Discard the skin.
- Add the olive oil to a large pot over high heat and add the carrots and onions. Cook for 6-8 minutes until both begin to soften. (I used a Ninja Foodi pressure cooker, but you can use a stovetop all the same.)
- Add the garlic, black pepper, sage, and nutmeg. Stir and cook until the garlic is fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Add the chicken broth, cream of chicken soup, rotisserie chicken, and bay leaves to the pot. Bring to a boil before reducing to low-medium heat and adding the peas.
- For the Dumplings
- While the chicken soup comes up to a boil begin by mixing the dumpling dry ingredients together and cutting in the butter with a fork.
- Add the Greek yogurt and mix until a dough begins to form. Don't over mix.
- Use your hands to work the remaining dry ingredients into the dough and divide the finished dough into 16 small pieces. (The dough will weigh 400 grams so each will weigh 25 grams.)
- Cooking the Dumplings
- Remove the bay leaves before placing the dumplings on top of the chicken soup. If you're using a pressure cooker, seal the pot and cook on high for 5 minutes with a quick release. (If you're using the stovetop, cover the pot and simmer for 15-20 minutes.)
- The dumplings should be tender and buoyant. You can use the toothpick test to make sure they're cooked through.
Amazing! Was hesitant about the nutmeg, but it all comes together. The dumplings with puffy little clouds. Will be making all fall and winter long.
I wouldn’t steer you wrong. 😉
I thought the soup itself was wonderful, but I struggled with the sweetness/sweetner flavor in the dumplings. I used Monkfruit sugar. I will make again for sure because I loved the consistency of the dumplings. Next time I’ll either cut the sweetener completely or maybe a tsp. Thank you for the soup base…there is so much to do with that!
There shouldn’t be any sweetness in the dumplings. I wonder if the monkfruit sweetener you used is a concentrated form that requires less than a 1:1 ratio for sugar?
Could you use turkey instead of chicken?
Turkey should work just fine. 🙂
Please give me the amount of granulated sugar to use in dumplings
It’s there in the recipe. If you mean real sugar instead of sugar substitute, it’s the same amount.
This was the perfect, cold rainy day meal. It had such a savory flavor. I was surprised at how tasty the dumplings were! I was doubtful about the Greek yogurt ingredient, but trusted Masons recipe skills and tried it anyways. It was so delish, and reheated so well!
This was so yummy! It is every bit of southern and comfort food! I sprinkled a little tyme as well. Made it for my in laws as well and the loved it too! Can’t wait to try more of your recipes! Thanks for this one! 😊
Will stevia in the raw work for the sweetener for the dumplings? I looked for then the stuff you use with no luck. Also around how many cups are 3 medium carrots. I got the pre cut and I’m not sure if I should put the whole bag. Thank you
I’m not sure what the conversion is for stevia in the raw, but I’ve seen people use baking stevia (1:1 sugar sub) without any issues. For the carrots, I used around 150 grams which is probably 1-1.25 cups. You don’t have to be exact with the carrots in this one, though. Hope that helps!
Would almond flour work for the dumplings or is this one of those recipes that needs all purpose?
Almond flour won’t work for this dough, unfortunately. You won’t get them to form and even if you do, they’ll likely dissolve a bit during cooking.
would this work with Tuekry instead of chicken?
Would GF flour work for the dumplings or would that change the consistency?
I’ve seen others use the 1:1 gluten free flour for the biscuits recipe which calls for the same ingredients. If it’ll work for those, it should work for the dumplings.
Mason, Another quick and easy recipe for beginners. I like the fact that your recipes are a bit healthier than most traditional southern meals. My girls love chicken and dumplings and them being in college I think this will be quick and easy for them to enjoy on a weekend.
If any criticism is to be had it would be on the canned soup used versus making fresh for health benefits but hey what’s a little botulism amongst friends. Keep up the great posts, thanks.
Just made this for dinner, it was so easy and absolutely delicious! I substituted the cream of chicken for Trader Joe’s Cream of Portobello soup (seasonal item) and doubled the soup for extra thickness. I will definitely be making this again!
What is the saturated fat content? Is it 8? If so I get a much higher SP value then 5 when I do the calculations. BTW this looks delish!
I don’t have the saturated fat on hand for this one, but that seems a bit high. The only real source of saturated fat would be from the olive oil, cream of chicken soup, or light butter and those only have around 16-18 grams for the entire recipe or less than 2 grams per serving.
Can I convert this to a crockpot recipe? When would I add the dumplings/how long would they cook?
I’m not entirely sure on how long they’d take in a slow cooker. I vaguely remember a few others using the crockpot on high and it taking 30-60 minutes at the end of cooking for the dumplings to cook.
This was delicious. I’ve made it multiple times; however, the first time I made it I used stevia granulated and measured out grams instead of doing 2 tablespoons, so the dumplings were very sweet. The next time I just used one tablespoon (didn’t use my scale) and they turned out perfect. I also cut the olive oil in half the second time to save some fats and I felt it still had great flavor and didn’t change it much. Seriously so good!!!
This recipe is the bomb! I’ve never made dumplings before and not only were these great tasting, but they were easy peasy to make! I’m definitely keeping this one in our frequent rotation! Thanks Mason!!