A simple, yet delicious stick to your ribs slow cooker chicken and dumplings recipe. Savory broth, potato gnocchi, and velvety leeks make for a new twist on an old classic.
Leeks need more respect!
Instead of onions, this recipe uses sliced leeks. If you’ve never tried them, the best way I can describe them, is that they are similar to green onions. It is a mild onion flavor, that when cooked, leaves a mild undertone that enhances almost any soup. As opposed to green onions, I only use the white part of the leek. I cut off both ends. The root as well as the part of the leek that starts to “spread” from the top. Then I slice the leek in half along it’s length, and slice into 1/4″ pieces.
When to add the vegetables
Since we are using frozen vegetables, they should not be added at the beginning. Adding them at the beginning will make them too soft which is not ideal. In my area, diced carrots and peas are readily available and I find that they are small enough that they reach tenderness within 2 hours. The celery is a slightly different animal. Celery, when sliced thin enough, gives a slight crunch to the dish that is needed, but some people may want to cook it longer. The key to almost any recipe is having different textures, and the slight crunch from the celery does just that.
Dumpling used to make slow cooker chicken and dumplings
I do not discourage anyone from making their own dumplings. Our slow cooker chicken and dumplings recipe makes use of pre-made gnocchi to make things easier. Gnocchi is a potato based dumpling. It is available in most markets in frozen and fresh varieties. They are pillowy and tender when cooked properly, and work extremely well in this recipe. But if you decide to make your own dumplings from scratch, I applaud you. Send me your recipe and I’d love to try it!
What chicken to use
I’ve made this slow cooker chicken and dumplings with several types of chicken. I’ve used chicken breasts, chicken thighs, and even drumsticks. In my opinion, boneless, skinless chicken thighs work the best. Dark meat generally tastes better and is less likely to dry out. The one time I used drumsticks was simply because I forgot to buy chicken thighs when I was at the store. They were a pain in the butt to cut up, but turned out similarly to the desired chicken thighs.
Perfect broth for chicken and dumplings
Because my goal is to provide easy recipes, I always recommend a few shortcuts. Of course if I have the time to make my own stock to make slow cooker chicken and dumplings I will do it. I have a full time job and unfortunately cannot spend all day making slow cooker chicken and dumplings. If you have the time to make our own broth I highly recommend that you do it. But in my mind, the closest store bought option that I have found is Better Than Boullion which is sold in most of my local stores. I have also purchased it on Amazon when local stores were out of stock.
Better Than Boullion is a concentrated paste, that when added to water, makes an excellent stock. It is available in chicken, beef, turkey and many more flavors. To make a broth it takes a ratio of one tsp of BTB to one cup of water. BTB stores for months in the fridge, and is SOOO much cheaper than buying boxed broth from your local store.
Boxed broth needs to be used within seven days once opened. BTB usually costs around $6 per jar, and makes around 40 cups of broth to use for slow cooker chicken and dumplings. A typical boxed broth is 4 cups and costs around $4! This basically means that BTB is almost one tenth of the cost and has substantially more flavor.
