How to make perfect chicken and dumplings

The combination of chicken and dumplings is an American classic. Packed with veggies, shredded chicken, and light, fluffy dumplings, this thick chicken broth dish is comforting and nourishing, and I make it when I need a nice meal to warm me up. As with many popular recipes, there are many variations of chicken and dumplings, with different chefs adding their own spin.

In my research, I've come across tons of recipes that call for shortcuts like canned chicken soup, a chicken, or ready-made buttermilk biscuits cooked right on top of the broth. While these shortcuts are convenient, they don't necessarily guarantee the tastiest version of chicken and dumplings. Canned soup is often heavily salted, which means that you cannot fully control the seasoning of the food, and the finished biscuit tends to fall apart during the cooking and heating process. I wanted chicken and dumplings with a rich, flavorful broth, and dumplings that were fluffy but still packed. My recipe below is my ideal version and I make it for myself and my family when we need a warm, comforting meal.

How to make the tastiest chicken and dumplings

If possible, make your own broth. While good quality store-bought broth is an option, I prefer to make it myself, as it gives me more control over the taste and texture of the base. My homemade broth is full of aromatics, including carrots, celery, bay leaves, and black pepper, and includes a whole chicken. The meat gives the broth a strong poultry flavor, while the gelatin-rich bones add body. Plus: Using a whole chicken is the most practical route, as it allows the cooked meat to be incorporated into the final dish.

Use a whole chicken, but separate the parts. While some cooks like to throw a whole chicken into the pot because the white meat cooks much faster than the dark meat and dries out easily, I remove the breast and legs from the rest of the carcass, then remove each part from the simmering broth. finishes cooking. Cooking the chicken in parts ensures that both the white and dark meat remain tender and juicy.

Thicken the soup with flour. To thicken the base, I coat the aromatics in flour, then add the broth, evaporated milk, salt and Worcestershire sauce. As the mixture boils, the starch grains swell, thickening the soup.

Use steamed milk. While many cooks use heavy cream, milk, or half-and-half, I like to reach for steamed milk—not to be confused with sweetened condensed milk. To make evaporated milk, manufacturers boil fresh milk until about 60% of the water is removed, thickening it and concentrating its flavor. It adds richness and body to anything it's used in, and here it adds a nice velvety texture to the base of my chicken and dumplings. Pro tip: Stick to a gentle simmer and don't bring the soup to a boil after adding the dairy or the fat will split.

Let Worcestershire work its magic. A dash of Worcestershire sauce – which contains malt vinegar, molasses, sugar, anchovies, onion and tamarind – is an incredibly easy way to add depth of flavor to a dish.

For the fluffiest dumplings, mix in baking soda and sour cream. Baking soda and sour cream help leaven the cookies: The baking soda reacts with the acidity of the sour cream to create airy dumplings while creating an alkaline environment that weakens the gluten and results in softer dumplings. However, it's still very important to go easy on the dough. Overworking the dough can develop too much gluten, resulting in chewy, thick dumplings. I cook the dumplings directly in the soup, so they absorb the flavor of the soup. The starches in the dumplings also help to further thicken the soup, resulting in a rich, hearty meal.

Cooking method
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