Last updated on December 31, 2020 by Liza Hawkins
Chicken stew and drop biscuit dumplings is the perfect wintry warm-you-up meal. It’s snowed (well, flurried, really) a few times so far this season — not a lot, but enough to make things feel cozy and wintry.
When winter finally sets in somewhere mid-January, I love lazy Saturdays and Sundays when we can relax and eat hearty comfort food. And, I find this is most often satisfied by something slowly simmering in a slow cooker or on the stove all day in my dutch oven, with wafts of deep, savory smells permeating the house.
Something like a stew or soup.
Growing up, my grandmother always made chicken and dumplings in the winter, southern-style with drop biscuits on top.
In Maryland (where I grew up), you’d also find chicken and dumplings made with a pasta-type of dumpling, sometimes called Pennsylvania Dutch chicken pot pie or “slippery pot pie,” but I’d never seen that until moving to Frederick in the early 2000s — which makes sense given its close proximity to Pennsylvania.
Call me sentimental, but I think the southern-style drop biscuits are the better of the two styles.
Drop biscuits are a little doughy, with a melt-in-your-mouth texture that comes from the steaming atop the stew. Mmm…
If you’re a fan of these slow, simmering recipes, be sure to check out some of my other favorites:
- Chicken Stew with Biscuits (Ina Garten’s recipe!)
- Classic Beef Stew
- Easy Slow Cooker Pot Roast
- Slow Cooker BBQ Ribs
- Easy Slow Cooker Pork BBQ
- Homemade Applesauce in the Slow Cooker
Chicken Stew and Drop Biscuit Dumplings
Chicken and dumplings with southern-style drop biscuits atop a creamy chicken stew base are the perfect wintry warm-you-up meal.
Ingredients
- 5 chicken thighs, bone-in & skin on
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tablespoon dried parsley
- 1 tablespoon sea salt
- 1 teaspoon garlic salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning
- 2 dried bay leaves
- 1 cup whole milk
For the dumplings:
- 1/8 cup canola oil
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
Instructions
For the chicken stew:
- In a dutch oven or heavy bottomed soup pot, add the chicken, onion, garlic, parsley, sea salt, garlic salt, pepper, poultry seasoning and bay leaves.
- Fill the dutch oven with enough water to cover the chicken by an inch, and bring to a boil. Once boiling, cover the pot and reduce heat to maintain a simmer, and let it cook for one hour.
- Meanwhile, make the drop biscuit dumplings (below).
- Once the stew is finished cooking, remove it from heat and gently take out the chicken (it will be fall-apart tender) and place it on a cutting board to rest, then chop it into bite-sized pieces.
- Set the dutch oven in the fridge, uncovered, and let it cool for one hour. Once cool, use a spoon to skim the fat off the top of the stew. Discard the fat.
- Place the dutch oven back on the stove over medium heat. Once at a simmer, stir in the milk and let it continue to simmer for a few minutes while you get the dumplings ready.
For the drop biscuit dumplings:
- In a mixing bowl, gently mix the canola oil, milk, all-purpose flour, baking powder, sat, pepper and parsley together with a spoon until it's just combined. Don't over-mix because it can cause the dumpling dough to become tough.
- Drop the dough by tablespoonfuls on top of the simmering chicken stew. Cover it with a lid and let it continue to simmer for 15 minutes.
Notes
Serve the chicken stew and drop biscuit dumplings over rice or egg noodles, or just eat it as-is like soup!
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
6Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 622Total Fat: 22gSaturated Fat: 6gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 16gCholesterol: 145mgSodium: 1757mgCarbohydrates: 69gFiber: 3gSugar: 4gProtein: 36g
This same dish is half-made as I type. I turned it off mid-recipe so we could eat our pizza dinner. Now that I have read your recipe, I will add some milk.
I make my dumplings with Bisquick – shame on me…..but I cannot tell the difference between them and the ones my grandmother made from scratch. I make very small dumplings. Any drop dumplings are better than those things called “slippery dumplings” which are popular in the southern part of the state (Delaware). They are just big noodles!
@JoAnn – That’s like me and pie crust. I just don’t make it from scratch – the store bought pie dough is fine, no BETTER, than my own. And far more simple. How ironic that you’re also making the same thing! Enjoy!
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Thanks For Sharing this amazing recipe. My family loved it. I will be sharing this recipe with my friends. Hope the will like it.
Great! Thanks for stopping by!
I always enjoy reading different perspectives on this subject.