Easy Crock Pot Chicken and Dumplings.
Juicy chicken breasts cooked to tender perfection in the slow cooker in a rich creamy sauce.
Shortcut dumplings make this deliciously comforting meal effortless for a family favorite everyone will agree on.
Chicken and Dumplings are probably the ultimate comfort food. Tender juicy shredded chicken and soft dumplings in a rich creamy brothy gravy.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Old Fashioned Chicken and Dumplings from scratch but having a busy household with kids, I know that sometimes time is short and I don’t have hours to spend cooking a full Sunday dinner from scratch.
This recipe uses a few little short cuts to make it really quick and easy to put together while not skimping on flavor.
The best part about this recipe is that it cooks up in the slow cooker all day long.
That means you can spend about 5 minutes prepping and head on out and run your errands (or go for lunch with your friends which sounds much more fun).
The slow cooker does all of the work but the results are just as amazing as a from scratch recipe (there’s a reason this recipe has a five star rating ★★★★★)!
Quick prep with optimal results is my kind of cookin’.
I use a can of premade biscuits to make the dumplings to make this dish totally effortless.
You’re going to want to roll them extra thin as they do puff up a little while they cook.
If you don’t want to use (or don’t have) canned biscuits, feel free to mix up a batch of your favorite homemade biscuits to create your own dumplings (or use Biscuit Mix).
Once you shred the chicken and stir it back in, your dumplings will break up a little bit but don’t worry; the edges soak up a bit of the sauce making for a perfect bowl of comfort.
While I know not everyone likes vegetables with their chicken and dumplings, I sure do!
I love the addition of frozen veggies for color, flavor and some extra nutrients (plus frozen veggies are pretty effortless).
If veggies in your chicken and dumplings isn’t your thing, feel free to leave them out (but don’t skip the onion, it adds lots of flavor)!
How to Make Perfect Slow Cooker Chicken and Dumplings
As easy as this recipe is, here are a few tips to make sure it turns out perfectly for you!
- This recipe is best made in a 6QT crock pot.
- While this chicken and dumplings recipe uses frozen veggies, they should be defrosted before adding to the slow cooker.
- My biscuits are always perfectly cooked after 60 minutes however some slow cookers may require extra time to cook the biscuits.
- Open the lid as little as possible as the slow cooker can lose heat quickly and this can cause your biscuits to not cook properly.
- Boneless chicken thighs make an excellent addition to this recipe.
- Once the biscuits are cooked through they should still have a soft, slightly doughy dumpling-like texture.
- Depending on the size of your slow cooker, this recipe may not double well. To double this recipe, cook the chicken portion as directed. Additional dumplings can be cooked on the stovetop or baked in the oven as biscuits.
Dairy (such as cream or milk) doesn’t always do well in the slow cooker; it can often separate or curdle so I’ve subbed in condensed soup in this recipe.
Condensed soups make a great addition to crock pot recipes as they tend to hold up very well in the slow cooker (plus they add lots of flavor to this recipe) without the risk of curdling.
Once you try this easy recipe, it’ll quickly become your go to for slow cooker chicken and dumplings.
Ensure your slow cooker is on high and the liquid should be bubbling along the edges when you open the lid to add your vegetables and biscuits.
It’s really important that you open the lid for as little time as possible and that your vegetables are completely defrosted.
Note: Buttermilk, Country or Homestyle Biscuits work best in this recipe. When adding the vegetables/biscuits ensure the lid is left off as little as possible. Leaving the lid off for long periods of time will drastically increase cooking time.
Crock Pot Chicken and Dumplings
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 large onion diced
- 1 can cream of celery soup (10.5 oz)
- 1 can cream of chicken soup (10.5 oz)
- 1 tablespoon fresh parsley
- 1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
- black pepper to taste
- 4 skinless boneless chicken breasts
- 2 cups low sodium chicken broth
- 2 cups frozen vegetables or peas and carrots, defrosted
- 1 can refrigerated biscuits (8 pieces) Buttermilk, Country or Homestyle
Instructions
- Add onion to 6 qt crock pot and top with chicken breasts.
- In a small bowl, combine cream of celery soup, cream of chicken soup, parsley, poultry seasoning and pepper. Spread over chicken breasts. Top with chicken broth and cook on high 5 hours.
- Approximately 1 hour (I allow 60 - 90 minutes) before serving (after 4 hours of cooking time), roll each biscuit thin and flat. Cut into 4 strips. Add vegetables to the slow cooker and stir. Add biscuit strips on top. Replace lid as quickly as possible.
To Serve
- Remove chicken breasts and slightly shred. Add back into slow cooker and stir (this will break up the dumplings somewhat which is ok). Let cook an additional 10 minutes and serve.
Notes
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Dinner
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can this be thicken with flour & water ?
I would recommend thickening with a cornstarch slurry. Combine equal parts cornstarch and water and add a little bit at a time to thicken.
Amazing! I grew up on southern style chicken and dumplings and this is very different. I loved it and will make it often. I only had golden mushroom soup instead of regular but used it anyway. I was impressed! I had grand biscuits instead of regular so added another cup of broth.
The first time I made the soup, the dumplings came out great. But ever since then when I try to make it, the dumplings just disintegrate into the soup. So there is no more dumpling. I’m basically just eating the liquefied part of the biscuit. How do I fix this?
The dumplings are definitely soft as they’re cooked in liquid although they shouldn’t be mushy. If you find they aren’t cooking through, you could try simmering a little bit of broth on the stove and adding them or baking them on a rimmed baking sheet. I hope that helps.
Wonderful and so easy. Thank you!
So tasty BUT my biscuits never get cooked enough..they are mushy and doughy no matter how long I cook. Not sure what I am doing wrong as I followed the instructions and watched the video. I used Pillsbury refrigerated in a can, should I be using something else? I could use some advise on this step please…
Hi Cindy-
Did you ever get a response about the biscuits? I had the same problem. My biscuits completely disintegrated into the soup. I have no idea what went wrong. I used pillsbury biscuits homestyle as was posted in the recipe. Quite a shame because I really wanted to taste the ‘dumplings.’
Hey Cindy! I make this recipe very often and I found that the hotter the liquid the better they cook. So I have amended a step in the process. Instead of putting the biscuits in after the cool veggies are dropped in..I put the veggies in and let the liquid get really hot with the lid on the crockpot for about 20 mins – meanwhile I’m rolling tiny little biscuit balls on a paper plate letting the dough get a bit warmer and having them ready to drop in.
I take the lid off and drop in the dough balls without stirring too too much so the liquid stays super hot.
Then I try to only stir enough so the dough balls don’t stick together so the crockpot stays super hot :)
Looovveeee this recipe so much !
Sooo good. We can’t get enough!
Super easy and soooo tasty! Thank you!!!
So yummy, but i question myself every time – can you tell me how many pounds of chicken instead of how many breasts. So much variances these days in size.
This will be approximately 1.5lb of chicken. I am so glad you enjoy this recipe Crystal!
Excellent- this helps a lot.
Very easy recipe. This is by far the best recipe especially given I’m not a fan of cenlary but the cream of female y soup gives it the best finishing taste
Hi Fred-
I, too, am not a fan of celery. It can be stringy… One bite could be crunchy-ish while another could be totally mushy… And it just tastes icky to me. It’s also not the only fruit or vegetable that I struggle with either. Ex: fresh tomatoes look soooooooo delicious but it’s like someone is performing an exorcism on me if I happen to bite into one.
But I digress.
I’m old enough that I have to now click that census box that labels me as “middle aged” () and I hate having these food aversions ()… But everyone I know has learned the signs of when I missed a piece of ick and it snuck its way into my mouth because I’m either obviously gagging immediately or my body is shutting down the strong obvious gagging reaction in favor of being unable to swallow the food in my mouth, causing internal panic and much, much smaller gag reactions. This can sometimes causes me to swallow a little food where I may start choking and/orrrr, (and this is super fun!) cause me to regurgitate.
Don’t I sound like a blasty blast to be around and the life of the party?
❓Soooo, why the total over share of my eating issues…..?
Welp….. I can imagine that your recommendation of substituting “cream of female soup” for the “best finishing taste” would cause me to skip all the steps I listed above and I would start vomiting immediately. Like, do not pass go and do not collect $200. ♀️
Feel free to enjoy it on my behalf Chef!
this is great so far but I’m at a loss for how to roll and slice the biscuits. please I need some help. thanks!
There is a video in the post but you can also watch the whole video here on YouTube or watch
rolling the biscuits here.
Love this recipe! I’ve made it several times since I’ve seen it.
Hi Holly, would this be low or high on the crockpot?
Cook on high for 5 hours. Enjoy the recipe!
This recipe is wonderful as is. I made it once, exactly as written, and the family loved it. I am wondering how long to cook it on low if I am going to be out of the house all day. Think it would ruin the chicken breasts?
While I haven’t tried it Nicole, many readers have cooked this one on low for 7-8 hours successfully. When adding the biscuits and veggies, you’ll want to turn it up to high. It may need a little bit of extra time to heat up so they’ll likely have to cook a little bit longer.
Would it be okay to use vegetable stock instead of chicken? Currently snowed in and don’t want to brave the weather for one ingredient :) I only have two chicken breasts as well so I was figuring to minimize my ingredients a bit as well.
Yes, that should work just fine. You can also add a chicken bouillon cube if you have one.
Absolutely delicious! Wow, comfort food at its best!
excellent. browned chicken first and the onion, celery, carrot then put all in crock. pot. very good
It was delicious! I added garlic powder to mine. I had frozen sliced carrots that I diced and yellow/white corn because no one in my household like peas.
In what category can I find my favorites? I have put a heart on all recipes I would be interested in keeping, but now I can’t find them.
Hi Debby, to find the recipes you have saved you click the heart in the top header bar in between the about and the search button. I hope this helps!
I have a question, Can I use “NO YOLKS” beside using refrigerator biscuits?
I haven’t tried this with No Yolks so I can’t say for sure. The dumplings do soak up some of the liquid so changing them out might affect the consistency and make it a bit more runny.
We just finished gobling it up. My husband even liked it. Hardly any left! When I made the dumplings, I didn’t cut them, and just laid them around the top. Excellent!