Make Chicken And Dumplings Easily With The Help Of One Canned Ingredient

Chicken and dumplings is a dish that emblematizes comfort food for good reason — it is creamy, hearty, warm, spoonable, and satisfying. It is also pretty affordable to make, but the dumplings do come at a cost. You have to spend a lot of extra time making the dough from scratch! However, there is a hack that saves you this step, and it yields a final product that really is just as delicious. All you need are refrigerated canned biscuits.

Start by making a chicken and dumplings base. Then, simply cut the canned biscuits into pieces, or flatten out each disc and slice them into strips. Remember, they will puff up significantly as they cook. While the stew is simmering, drop the biscuit dough into the pot piece by piece. Give the whole thing a gentle stir, and then put the lid on so that they can steam properly. You want to keep the mixture bubbling at a simmer so that they cook evenly and do not stick to each other or the bottom of the pot. The dumplings will take about 10 to 15 minutes to cook through, depending on the size.

And just like that, you have got semi-homemade chicken and dumplings that taste like you went through a whole lot of trouble. You can also use this tip to make a hands-off slow cooker chicken and dumplings recipe, too.

Many recipes for chicken and dumplings call for homemade chicken broth or stock that is then thickened with a roux and enriched with milk or cream. Of course, this is delicious, but you can also replicate the flavor with store-bought broth or stock combined with your favorite creamy condensed soup such as cream of chicken, celery, onion, or mushroom for richness. Just make sure that you go for a low-sodium base since the canned soups add a fair amount of salt. Shredded rotisserie chicken and frozen veggies also cut down on preparation time.

This chicken and dumplings hack yields a dish that is similar to a drop style of dumpling, but that might not satisfy the craving for someone who prefers a rolled dumpling. These are usually cut into small rectangles, squares, or diamonds and have more of a noodle-like consistency. The leavening and layers in biscuit dough just cause too much of a rise to yield that flat shape.

However, the refrigerated section at the supermarket is home to another great shortcut item: fresh pie crust dough. This is the kind that usually comes rolled up in a cardboard box. Simply unroll the raw dough, cut it into the shape of your choice, and treat the rolled dumplings exactly how you would the biscuit pieces. For a fun riff, you can even substitute ready-made or two-ingredient gnocchi for the dumplings.

Chicken and dumplings made with canned biscuits gets dinner on the table with minimal effort, but you can actually use the exact same ingredients to make other easy and delicious meals. Instead of floating the dough in the stew and steaming the biscuits, you can bake the whole dish. Just transfer your base into a cast iron pan, Dutch oven, or heat-proof dish, place the whole biscuits on top, and bake the whole thing in the oven until the chicken stew is bubbling and the topping is golden brown. Brushing the uncooked biscuits first with Ina Garten's flavorful herb butter, or even just a sprinkle of sel gris, can elevate dishes as simple as this.

Alternatively, turn your chicken and dumplings into biscuit bites. Press the raw dough into a muffin tin, using one whole biscuit per cup. Then, fill each one with a scoop of your stew. Pinch the tops closed, and bake them until deliciously browned. These are great for parties, potlucks, or packed lunches! You can also just bake off the biscuits separately, and serve them with the creamy chicken stew spooned over the top. That way, you can satisfy your chicken and dumplings craving, and save the rest of the biscuits for breakfast.

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