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Is there anything more down-home, cold-weather cozy, and oh-so-satisfying than Chicken and Dumplings? All the reason I needed to make Gluten-Free and Dairy-Free Chicken and Dumplings!
Growing up, I used to *love it* when my momma made Chicken and Dumplings. Her rendition was the oh-so Southern semi-homemade version but dang it was SO GOOD. The main ingredients in her soup consisted of canned biscuits, cream of chicken soup, lots of chicken and broth. My siblings and I would devour every last bite!
This recipe took me some time to get right, mainly because of the dang dumplings. I first attempted a paleo rendition of the dumplings, but I just couldn’t get past how dense they were. I tried lots of variations of grain-free flours and it just wasn’t hitting that Chicken and Dumplings spot like I wanted it to!
I finally resulted to using a gluten-free flour and it really does taste super similar to classic dumplings, and I absolutely LOVE how this turned out! If you are a Chicken and Dumplings lover like me, and love to cozy up to a big bowl of it during the cold weather seasons, give this cleaned-up Gluten-Free and Dairy-Free Chicken and Dumplings version a try! I think you’ll love it!
Chicken and Dumplings
Ingredients
Chicken + Soup
- 2½ pounds chicken pieces, (I use a mix of bone-in, skin-on breasts and/or thighs)
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1½ cup small-diced yellow onion
- 1 cup small-diced carrots (from about 1 large carrot)
- 1 cup small-diced celery (from about 2 stalks)
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1½ cups Nutpods Original Creamer
- 2 tablespoons tapioca flour
- 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice, (from about 1 lemon)
For the Dumplings:
- 1 cup 1:1 gluten-free flour
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon freshly chopped thyme leaves
- 1 tablespoons freshly chopped chives
- 2 tablespoons ghee, room temperature (or butter or vegan butter)
- 4 tablespoons Nutpods Original Creamer
Instructions
Start the Soup Base:
- Pat dry the chicken pieces and season generously with kosher salt and pepper all over.
- In a large dutch oven or pot, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add chicken, skin side down and cook until golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes. Transfer the browned chicken to a plate and set aside.
- Reduce heat to medium and add the onion, carrot, celery and garlic. Cook, stirring, until the vegetables are tender, about 4 minutes.
- Nestle chicken back into the pot with any of its juices then add the broth, thyme, bay leaves and turmeric. Stir to combine and bring to a boil, uncovered.
- Once boiling, reduce heat to simmering (about medium heat) and cover until chicken is cooked through and can be easily shredded, shredded, 20 to 30 minutes depending on the size of your chicken pieces.
- While the chicken is cooking, whisk to combine tapioca and Nutpods in a separate bowl and set aside.
Meanwhile, make the Dumplings:
- In a medium sized bowl, add the gluten free baking flour, salt, pepper, baking powder, thyme and chives into a bowl and mix.
- Add ghee and stir to combine with a fork. It will be crumbly and powdery. Mash with back of fork.
- Add the Nutpods. Using back of a fork, mash and stir until well-combined. Once mixed, use hands to form one big ball of dough. (if your dough is too dry, add another teaspoon of the nutpods). Set aside in the fridge while your soup continues to cook or for at least for 10 minutes to firm up.
Finish the Soup:
- Once the chicken is cooked through, remove from the pot and place onto cutting board to cool.
- Reduce the heat in the soup to a low simmer. While stirring the soup, slowly pour the nutpod/tapioca mixture into your soup until well combined. Let simmer until soup thickens, 4 to 5 minutes.
- Once chicken is cool enough to handle, remove chicken from bone and remove the skin then shred the chicken. Once shredded, dice then place chicken back into the pot and discard the bones and skin.
- Taste broth and adjust seasoning as desired. Let the soup simmer, uncovered, while you add the dumplings.
- When ready and while the soup is still simmering, roll the dumplings into 1/2 tablespoon-size balls, and add to soup. Cook until tender and cooked through, about 15 minutes (the dumpling should float to the top).
- Add the lemon juice and stir to combine. Serve and enjoy!
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Love all your gluten free recipes. Can this be made with regular 2% milk?
Yes, definitely! It may not be as creamy as the Nutpods so you could also use regular whole milk or half-and-half instead.
The flavor is really good! Love the addition of milk to the soup. But the texture of the dumplings turned out too soft for my liking. I did get the dough to form into a ball and refrigerated. When i formed the dumplings, and added to the soup, they kind of melted and got mushy. I enjoy a chewier dumpling. I wonder if adding an egg would help and still work with these ingredients. I really liked the buttery flavor.
The dumpling dough would not stick together… like hardly at all. It was extremely loose and almost like there wasn’t nearly enough liquid to bind everything together. I had to throw it out and find a new recipe for GF dumplings.
I was very surprised as I am a diehard Defined Dish girlie.
This recipe was incredible! I had no issues with the dumplings which I was nervous about. Even my Grandma who would never even think about eating something gf and df loved it!
Glad you enjoyed it!
The soup is phenomenal! Dumplings not so much. Not sure what went wrong here but my dumplings were so dense and doughy – more like gnocchi than dumplings. Normally have no issues with DD recipes but something went wrong here. Would try again though, soup was spot on
But ghee is dairy!?
My dumplings were DENSE balls of dough……… DENSE. What could I have done wrong?
Why did my dumplings fall apart?
Can you use unbleached all purpose flour instead of GF?
You’ve done it again, Alex.
This recipe is honestly DELICIOUS, I could bathe in this stuff.
I was too lazy to make the dumplings and I don’t have a gluten intolerance so I just used refrigerated buttermilk biscuits by Pillsbury for a substitute. I rolled out the biscuits and cut them into long strips so they weren’t balls and would cook quicker and that turned out! I did need to increase cooking time by probably 15 more minutes after adding in the biscuits though. So, so good!