Chicken and dumplings better than Cracker Barrel. Southern style chicken and dumplings recipe made from scratch without rotisserie chicken, cream of chicken soup or canned biscuits. Homemade flour dumplings in a flavorful, thickened chicken broth for a cozy bowl of comfort food no matter the season.
Servings 6people
Prep Time 15 minutesmins
Cook Time 45 minutesmins
Total Time 1 hourhr
Ingredients
8cupswater
2boneless, skinless chicken breast
2tbspBetter than Boullion Roasted Chicken Base(see notes1)
Homemade Flour Dumplings
3cupsall purpose flour
1cupchicken broth(see notes2)
To Thicken Broth
2tbspcornstarch
1/4cupCOLD water
Garnish (optional)
Salt and Pepper to taste
6hard boiled eggssliced
Instructions
In a large 8 quart stock pot on the stovetop, add 8 cups water, 2 boneless, skinless chicken breast, and 2 tbsp Better than Boullion Roasted Chicken Base.
Turn the heat to High and bring to a boil.
While the chicken and broth are coming to a boil prepare your flour dumpling dough by combining 3 cups all purpose flour and 1 cup chicken broth in a small bowl until a dough ball is formed. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside until after chicken is done cooking.
Once the chicken and broth has begun to boil, reduce the heat to low-medium and simmer for 15 minutes or until the chicken is fully cooked.
Remove the chicken from the stockpot and place on a plate. Allow to cool for several minutes before shredded with two forks. Set aside.
With the chicken removed, its now time to cook the dumplings in the same chicken broth that we cooked the chicken in. To do this first cut the flour dumpling dough into 4 equal pieces (I like to do this with a bench scraper but you can use a knife as well).
Roll out one piece of flour dumpling dough until desired thickness, about 1/4 of an inch thick is recommended. I use a pasta roller attachment for my KitchenAid mixer on the first setting. However, this is not necessary at all. You can use a rolling pin to roll out the dough to the thickness you want your dumplings to be.
Once you've rolled out one piece of flour dumpling dough, cut with a knife into 1 inch rectangles.
Drop the cut dumplings into the chicken broth cooking on the stovetop on low-medium heat. Stir well to prevent sticking.
Repeat the steps of rolling out the dumpling dough and cutting into 1 inch rectangles with the remaining pieces of flour dumpling dough. After you cut each piece of dumpling dough into 1 inch rectangle drop them into the cooking broth on the stove and stir.
Once all of the dumplings have been rolled, cut, and dropped into the broth. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Dumplings will begin to float as they are cooked.
After cooking the dumplings, add the shredded chicken back into the chicken broth. Stir.
In a small bowl combine 2 tbsp cornstarch and 1/4 cup COLD water until cornstarch is dissolved.
Stir the cornstarch mixture into the chicken and dumplings. Stir until thickened.
Add Salt and Pepper to taste. If desired, you can also stir in 6 hard boiled eggs that have been sliced.
Notes
If you don't have Better than Bouillon Chicken Flavoring then you can use regular granulated chicken bouillon. Use the recommended amount according to the package directions for the amount of water used which is 8 cups. Typically it is 1 tsp for every 1 cup of water. So for this recipe you would use 8 tsp for 8 cups. If you don't want to use Bouillon then you can substitute 8 cups of chicken broth instead.
If you don't have chicken broth on hand, you can make your own using Better than Bouillon Chicken Flavoring or Regular Chicken Bouillon.