Crockpot Chicken and Dumplings

Crockpot Chicken and Dumplings is by far one of the most satisfying and simple dishes you can make as a slow cooker meal. For me, chicken and dumplings is the ultimate comfort food and it’s one of the best types of dishes to make during cold weather. A hot, creamy, chewy bowl of crockpot chicken and dumplings doesn’t just taste good, it feels good, too. Traditionally chicken and dumplings has a more savory flavor, but if you know me, you know I like to spice things up.

A Little Bit of Spice

This southern classic gets a creole twist with one simple ingredient. A dash of Slap Ya Mama is just the thing to give that creamy sauce and delicious chicken the kick it needs.

Of all the things you can enhance with Slap Ya Mama, I love it best on chicken. Especially with a creamy component. It all just works really well with the spice. But that’s to say nothing of the other headliner in this recipe, the dumpling.

What’s a dumpling and how can you make it in a Crockpot?

What is a Dumpling?

Dumplings are essentially balls of dough. They are savory and can be cooked in a variety of ways.

The most traditional ways include boiling, frying, or baking. They are typically served in a soup or alongside stewed meat. Hence, the chicken.

Although you serve dumplings with stewed meat, it isn’t generally recommended that you stew the dumplings with the meat. So, in order to make Crockpot chicken and dumplings, we have to cheat a little bit.

This easy recipe calls for biscuits. You can either make your own or buy them, but it’s a good idea to already have them on hand. If not, you can make them while the slow cooker does its thing with the chicken. Personally, I really enjoy setting the crockpot and leaving the kitchen altogether, but there is plenty of time to whip up a batch of fresh-made biscuits while you wait.

Dumpling Dough VS Biscuit Dough

You might think it a little strange, or a stroke of genius to have biscuits fill in as dumplings in a Crockpot chicken and dumplings recipe. As solutions go, it’s pretty spot on.

Biscuit dough and dumpling dough are both very similar to each other. At least they are where the ingredients are concerned. The real difference is how they are cooked. Since the dumplings in Crockpot chicken and dumplings are cooked together in this recipe, you can’t just toss in raw dumpling dough and expect the dumplings to come out correctly.

Instead, start with already cooked biscuits or refrigerated biscuits and toss them into the pot near the end of the slow cook process. The result is not quite a dumpling, but a good substitute especially when you consider the low level of effort this one-pot recipe requires.

Other Types of Dumplings

Dumplings are one of those rare food items that have a double meaning. While I doubt anybody would confuse the two when making chicken and dumplings, I do think it’s important to note the distinction whenever a term has multiple uses. Dumpling for example refers to a ball of dough that you steam, or fry, etc. It goes in stews and soups and is basically chewy bite-size chunks of biscuit.

The other kind of dumpling does not apply to a chicken and dumplings recipe. This second dumpling is the same dough ball only wrapped around a filling: ie. apple dumplings.

Apple dumplings don’t have a perfect ball shape and usually resemble something more like a wonton, or a croissant on the outside. More elaborately constructed apple dumplings may have folds around the top similar to the spiraled folds of a pinwheel. They are golden brown and have a pie like filling under the doughy surface.

Slow Cooker Chicken and Dumplings

The Crockpot is one of the best ways to cook chicken. Like other proteins, chicken grows soft and tender with the low heat setting and the slow cooking time. Although some cooks are hesitant to cook chicken in a slow cooker, it is perfectly safe to as long as you let the chicken cook completely and reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit.

Although your method of slow cooking is largely predetermined, there are a few things that are up to you. The low setting will require a longer cook time for your chicken (4-5 hours) while the high setting can cut that time almost in half. The drawback to the higher setting is that it doesn’t yield chicken that is as tender as the slow and low method.

Another option you have is to toss the chicken in raw or to give it a good sear before you pot it in the Crockpot. The searing helps to trap in the moisture, which you might prefer in some recipes as the slow cooker process causes chicken to lose a lot of its natural juices.

On the other hand, simmering in those juices for hours does have its own merits. While this recipe doesn’t call for searing, there isn’t anything wrong with doing that. If you can get a little bit of a char on your chicken it works great with the seasoning in Slap Ya Mama.

Frozen Chicken

Another thing some people like to do is toss their chicken into the Crockpot still frozen. If you haven’t had a chance to thaw your chicken and want to go straight from freezer to pot, then by all means do so. However, keep in mind that there are a couple of caveats.

First, you will need to cook the chicken at a higher setting in order to compensate for the frozen meat. Second, you will have to cut up your chicken at some point during the cooking process and return it to the crockpot. I don’t cut the chicken up before cooking it anyway, I just shred it after it has cooked through and return it to the Crockpot before adding the biscuits.

With that in mind here’s how to make Crockpot chicken and dumplings.

Ingredients to make Crockpot Chicken and Dumplings

• Chicken breast, boneless skinless
• Onion
• Garlic
• Cream of chicken soup
• Chicken broth
• Heavy whipping cream
• Frozen peas & carrots
• Slap Ya Mama
• Salt and pepper
• Biscuits

(Actual measurements in recipe card below)

How to make Crockpot Chicken and Dumplings

1. Place chicken, diced onion, and garlic in a crockpot.
2. Add cream of chicken soup and seasoning.
3. Pour chicken broth and heavy whipping cream on top.
4. Cover and cook on high for 4 hours or low for 6 hours.
5. Once cooked through, shred chicken and place back in crockpot.
6. Add frozen vegetables into crockpot.
7. Cut the biscuits into quarters and place on top.
8. Cover and cook on high for an additional 1 hour or low for 2 hours or until biscuits are cooked and fluffy.
9. Serve hot.

Try this delicious Crockpot Chicken and Dumplings

Here are a few more delicious recipes you can find on the blog

Here are a few pics that are the perfect size for pinning to Pinterest.

Enjoy, Terri

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