Chicken and Dumplings Recipe - The Cookie Rookie® (2024)

FAQs

Why are my biscuits soggy in chicken and dumplings? ›

Undercooked biscuits are mushy and gummy, while overcooking can cause them to fall apart in your broth. If you're making this dish in the slow cooker, you may also want to blind-bake your dough ahead of time, since your device won't reach the same high temperature as a pot on the stove.

By the mid-1800s, a variety of dumpling and meat dishes began to appear in southern cookbooks and a recipe of chicken stewed with dumplings was first published in 1879 by Marion Cabell Tyree in a cookbook called “Housekeeping in Old Virginia.” Many historians are also quick to point out that these recipes were cooked ...

Use Cornstarch to Thicken Chicken and Dumplings

To give that a little thicker texture we're going to add 1 cup of cool water to 2 tablespoons of cornstarch and stir it up well. Make sure the soup is brought back to a good boil and go ahead and stir in the cornstarch mixture.

When cooking the dumplings, keep the pot at a gentle simmer. An aggressive simmer or boiling will break them apart. Keep the heat low and keep your pot covered so that they steam.

Drop batter by spoonfuls into boiling stew or soup. Cover and simmer without lifting the lid for 15 minutes. Serve.

The second secret to making really good dumplings is to keep the lid closed while the dumplings cook. With the soup simmering over a low flame and the dumpling dough ready, you'll drop spoonfuls of the dough onto the surface of the simmering broth, then cover the pot with a lid.

There seems to be two camps when it comes to chicken and dumplings. The northerners love a dumpling that is more ball-shaped and is light and fluffy and the sauce is broth-based. The southerners love a dumpling that is more biscuit and chewy while the sauce is more of a gravy.

Some families hide a coin inside one or more of the jiaozi, so someone may bite into something hard and discover a gold or silver coin inside their dumpling. Whoever finds the dumpling with the coin has good luck and will be lucky in the upcoming year.

A dumpling—in this context—is a biscuit dough, which is a mixture of flour, shortening, and liquid (water, milk, buttermilk, or chicken stock). The dumplings are either rolled out flat, dropped, or formed into a ball.

Don't overmix the dough: Overmixing the dough can make your dumplings dense and chewy. Mix the dough just until the ingredients are combined. Add some broth: If you want to enhance the flavor of your dumplings, consider adding some broth to your stew or soup before adding the dumplings.

Why do you put cornstarch in dumplings? ›

Instead of steaming these dumplings in water, we simmer them in a vinegary cornstarch and flour slurry that creates a lacy, crunchy golden crust as the water evaporates and the dumplings brown.

There are two main reasons that the dumplings in chicken and dumplings turn out hard. One is the cooking; the dumplings will be hard if they are cooked too long or if they are cooked with the lid off so they simmer rather than steam and do not get the moisture from the stew as they cook.

It is important that you DO NOT STIR. We are not going to stir these as we don't want our dumplings cooking up. If you do stir, you will basically cause your dumplings to dissolve.

Cover up. As you fold your dumplings, keep them covered with a slightly damp kitchen towel. This prevents the dumplings from drying out (dry skins can split when cooked).

Store biscuit in container with very tight lids

Make sure you buy containers with tight lids which are designed to keep moisture out and prevent soft cookies from getting soggy.

Jo's solution: You've overbaked them. Take the cookies or biscuits out just before they firm up. Once cooled the edges will firm but the centres will remain soft and squidgy.

Keep an eye on the pan to ensure there's enough water. Uncover the dumplings and let any remaining water evaporate. Allow the bottoms to crisp to a light golden brown. Serve with your preferred sauce and indulge in the deliciousness!

Simmering broth might not be hot enough to raise the dumpling dough. Remove or tilt the lid after they've cooked so the dumplings don't over-steam and get soggy and dense. At least, that's the way I was taught and dumplings come out fluffy and delicious.