10 Ways To Upgrade Homemade Chicken And Dumplings

When the weather starts to cool down and you're in the mood for something hearty and comforting, nothing beats chicken and dumplings. It's a classic for a reason: The dense, chewy dumplings make a perfect pairing for shredded chicken and an assortment of vegetables in a savory broth. But if you've been following your grandma's same recipe for years, you may not realize that there are so many different ways to prepare your chicken and dumplings. And by learning about just a few of these methods, you may be able to upgrade your dish from a standard weeknight meal to a feast fit for a celebration.

Take a look at these easy steps you can take to upgrade your homemade chicken and dumplings. Whether you apply these ideas to your own recipe or you try one you find in a cookbook or online, they're sure to yield delicious results. Give them a try the next time you're craving a bowl of something warming and comforting on a cold day. Your belly will thank you.

Making your dumplings from scratch is the way to go if you're looking for the tastiest chicken and dumplings possible. To do that, you're only going to need a few ingredients, with flour playing the most important role in the recipe. Whether you decide to make your dumplings flat or in another, thicker shape, you're going to be forming them on a workspace sprinkled with flour. Now, you might think that when you're finished forming the dumplings, you should try to shake off that excess flour. But in reality, you should keep them covered in that coating instead.

Why don't you want to dust off that extra flour? It all comes down to the broth. The best chicken and dumplings recipes yield a creamy, velvety broth, and the extra flour that comes off the dumplings and mixes into the broth is what makes that happen. If you add flour straight to the broth, you're likely to end up with little floating chunks of flour that ruin the texture of the soup. But when that flour gets into the soup via the dumplings, it just thickens the texture, giving you that consistency you're looking for. Isn't it great when an upgrade actually requires less work in the kitchen?

There are some days when you have time to spend watching over a boiling pot for your chicken and dumplings to be done. All too often, though, we have busy schedules that don't allow us the time to make homemade meals from scratch. That's when a slow cooker can come in handy. This appliance lets you put all the ingredients you need into the cooker, turn it on, and walk away. Then, in a few hours, you'll have dinner ready to be ladled into a bowl.

If you've never used a slow cooker to make chicken and dumplings before, you have to give it a try. Not only is it a more convenient way to make this often time-consuming meal, but it also yields a more delicious dish. Because all of those ingredients are cooking together for an extended period of time, the resulting broth is more flavorful since all the components' flavors have melded together. You can use refrigerated biscuit dough if you want to keep things really simple and easy, or make your own dumplings from scratch.

You know those random ingredients you have stashed in the back of your pantry that you figure you'll use one day but haven't gotten the chance to yet? If you're like a lot of people, you have a can of evaporated milk that's hanging out back there, just waiting to be used. Well, it's time to dust that can off, because canned evaporated milk may just be the easiest way to upgrade your chicken and dumplings.

Evaporated milk is just what it sounds like: milk that's had some of the water content removed so it's thick and creamy. And if you want to imbue your chicken and dumplings with a dose of that creaminess, then stirring in some evaporated milk is a great way to do so. You'll want to add in the evaporated milk when you throw in the chicken so it has time to really mix and meld with the other ingredients. This creates a rich, luxe sauce you can't achieve with flour alone. And since a can of evaporated milk is generally pretty inexpensive, this is quite a cost-effective upgrade.

So, you're planning on making some homemade chicken and dumplings, but you don't know what kind of chicken to buy at the grocery store. Different cuts can yield very different results, so you want to make sure you're getting the right kind. Of course, you can always stick with chicken breast if you want to keep things light and lean. However, if you're interested in a richer, more flavorful pot of chicken and dumplings, you may want to opt for chicken thighs instead.

Chicken thighs are a better option primarily because of their fat content, which is higher than that of chicken breasts. That fat gives the soup more richness and flavor, and it's more tender than its leaner cousin. Additionally, chicken thighs contain connective tissue, which also contributes to a deeper, more complex flavor in your pot. And the best part? Generally, chicken thighs are cheaper than breasts, which means you're getting a more flavorful dinner for less money. Whether you're cooking your chicken and dumplings on a stovetop or in a slow cooker, thighs make for the richest and most flavorful results.

When you order chicken and dumplings from your favorite comfort food restaurant, you might notice that the broth is quite thick — maybe thicker than the chicken and dumplings broth you make at home. Have you ever wondered how to achieve that consistency? There are a few ways to go about it. It's easy to add in a bit more flour to thicken things up, but if you don't want to worry about that flour clumping together and making a mess, you may be better off using potato flakes.

Yes, you read that right. You can actually take instant mashed potato flakes and simply sprinkle some into your chicken and dumplings as they're cooking. You'll be amazed at just how quickly and easily the broth thickens up, helping you achieve that rich consistency you're going for. Plus, it bulks up the meal as well, meaning you can stretch another bowl or two out of the recipe. You may want to consider adding some extra butter or fat into the dish if you choose to use potato flakes, though — that additional fat can keep your chicken and dumplings from tasting too much like mashed potatoes.

You're probably used to the chicken and dumplings recipe you make all the time, but just because you have one way of doing things doesn't mean you shouldn't explore other recipes. If you're looking for a simple and easy way to give your everyday chicken and dumplings a twist, consider adding some fresh minced ginger to your ingredients list. This idea hails from a now-shuttered NYC diner called Nickel & Diner. The restaurant's recipe includes both ricotta dumplings and minced ginger for a nice balance of sharper, fresher, rounder, richer flavors.

There are a few different ways you can incorporate ginger into your chicken and dumplings. If you want the flavor to be milder and more incorporated into the broth, then quickly fry minced ginger before you add your broth to the pot. However, if you want to capture ginger's brighter, fresher qualities, then you don't need to cook it at all. Just chop it up super-fine, and top your chicken and dumplings with a sprinkling of it right before serving. It's an unexpected twist on a classic that you won't be able to get enough of.

There are a few pantry staples you should always have on hand for those times when you want to make a filling dinner but don't have much in the fridge. Canned cream of chicken soup is one of those pantry staples. It can be used for a variety of purposes, but it especially shines when it's mixed into a pot of chicken and dumplings. Achieving that perfectly creamy, velvety consistency is probably one of the most challenging parts of making chicken and dumplings, and using cream of chicken soup is a shortcut that will help you do just that.

If you do decide to use this hack, you'll want to keep one thing in mind. It's best to add the soup right before you're done cooking. Otherwise, if you leave it in the boiling soup for too long, the cream in the condensed soup will start to cook and curdle, resulting in a chunky mess that's far from appetizing. Once you throw in your cream of chicken soup and make sure the dish is heated evenly, you can take it off the burner and transfer it to a bowl to enjoy.

Making dumplings is the best — and perhaps most time-consuming — part of making chicken and dumplings from scratch. Even so, it's a relatively straightforward task. Depending on the recipe you're using, you'll need only a few ingredients, most of which you probably already have stocked in your pantry anyway. But just because dumplings don't have to be complicated doesn't mean you can't experiment with ways to give them even more flavor. One easy way to do that is to simply mix some dried herbs into the dough.

You can use a variety of herbs to give your dumplings more flavor. Some solid options include thyme, rosemary, or dried basil. Chives make for an exceptionally flavorful addition to dumplings, provided you don't mind that sharp, onion-y flavor. Even if you want to just keep things simple, a bit of cracked black pepper in addition to the standard salt can take your dumplings to a whole new level. Why settle for boring dumplings when you can eat ones infused with even more flavor?

There's making chicken dumplings from scratch, and then there's making chicken and dumplings from scratch. Of course, the second option is a bit more involved and time-consuming, but if you're willing to put in the effort, it yields ultra-delicious results. For this, you're going to want to use a whole chicken. Luckily, this often ends up being cheaper per pound, and you get to work with different cuts of chicken in your dish. You'll want to cook down that whole chicken along with the veggies of your choice, like carrots and celery.

After the chicken has been simmering with the veggies for a while, you take the chicken out of the pot, pull the chicken off the bones, and cut the chicken into more bite-sized pieces before adding it back into the pot. At that point, you can add in your homemade dumplings. This is definitely a bit of a project — it might not be your best option on particularly busy weeknights — but making everything, even the broth, from scratch is when chicken and dumplings can really shine.

If there's one single seasoning you can add to your chicken and dumplings (or basically any savory dish) that will take it to the next level, it has to be MSG. Unfortunately, MSG has gotten a bad reputation, but we have good news: The idea that MSG is bad for you is a racist myth that singled out Chinese food for its use of the ingredient. But a huge number of the snack foods you know and love also contain MSG because, yes, it does make everything taste delicious. So throw your MSG anxieties to the side and embrace the use of the ingredient for your homemade chicken and dumplings.

This is a dish that can be notoriously bland since you're not using a ton of different seasonings. Rather, it relies heavily on the basics, like salt and pepper, in addition to the flavor of the chicken and veggies themselves. That makes chicken and dumplings the ideal canvas for MSG. The seasoning is known for adding an umami quality to dishes, and you can use it similarly to how you would use salt. Just be sure to taste frequently while you're adding MSG and other seasonings to ensure you don't add too much.