It’s okay if you think of the pioneer woman chicken and dumpling as your favorite comfort meal. It’s a warm and hearty meal that you can enjoy all day long. Even Ree Drummond herself often called this dish one of her favorites on a rainy day.
Here Is How to Make the Pioneer Woman Chicken and Dumpling
The ingredients cover all you need for the broth and dumplings because nothing is better than making a hearty meal from scratch. And if you look closely, you see that the ingredients are very easy to find and largely already available at your home.
Ingredients for Chicken
- 1 whole chicken, cut into pieces
- ½ cup celery, finely diced
- ½ cup carrots, finely diced
- ½ teaspoon of ground thyme
- 2 tablespoons of butter
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric
- 1 medium onion, finely diced
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil
- 6 cups of low-sodium chicken broth
Ingredients for Dumplings:
- ½ cup yellow cornmeal
- 1 tablespoon of baking powder
- 1 teaspoon of kosher salt
- 1 ½ cups of all-purpose flour
- 2 cups of half and half
- 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour
- Salt to flavor
- 2 tablespoons of minced parsley
How to Cook:
Start with prepping the chicken. After you clean them, sprinkle salt and pepper on the chicken and let it sit while you’re milling butter in a large pot. Add olive oil and start browning the chickens. Once they start to brown, transfer them to a clean plate.
Don’t clean the pot yet, instead put the diced carrots, onions, and celery there. On medium-low heat, stir them for about four minutes. Add ground thyme and turmeric, stir a bit more then slowly add the chicken broth.
Once the ingredients start to combine nicely, put back the brown chicken into the broth. Let it simmer for about 20 minutes with its lid on. Then move on to the dumplings.
Sift all of the flour, cornmeal, salt, and baking powder in a large bowl. Slowly add 1 ½ cups of half and half into the mixture while you continue to stir. Remember that you want the texture without the clumps.
Once again remove the chicken from the pot and set them aside. Start shredding the chicken meat using two forks. Return the shredded chicken to the pot and pour the remaining half-and-half and the flour. Keep stirring the pot until they are thoroughly combined.
As the broth starts to simmer, use two tablespoons to form the dumpling balls and drop them into the pot. Add parsley and put the lid back on. Keep simmering it while you continue checking and adjusting the flavor. Once it’s been simmering for 15 minutes, you can turn off the heat and let it sit for another 10 minutes before you start serving.
Is This The Best Chicken And Dumpling Ever Recipe?
The dish can be very versatile as you can make it hotter or even a bit soupier if you want. But it’s already good as it is, so you may not want to add anything else.
Even though it sounds a bit complicated, the pioneer woman chicken and dumpling is very easy to do. And you can always wrap the leftovers and reheat them for the next day.
