Homemade Chicken & Dumplings is classic American comfort food. It was one of my family's favorites when my mom was growing up. Where we come from in Ohio, we call it Chicken & Slippers. I've read that it is French Canadian in origin, and that it was very common during the Great Depression. So this makes a lot of sense — since my family settled just east of Toledo. It's also a very popular in the American South.
Sprouted flour is much better for you than regular white flour. For one thing, it's a whole grain. So you're getting all the benefits of whole wheat including fiber and vitamins and minerals. Because the flour is sprouted, it's easier to digest and the minerals are much better absorbed.
This really is a one-pot meal, so there's no need to serve anything with it. If you wanted to, you could garnish it with some sauerkraut or other fermented vegetable and/or sour cream.
Sprouted Flour Chicken & Dumplings
- Yield: Serves 4
Ingredients
For the soup:
- Carrots, large (2)
- Celery stalks (2)
- Onion, yellow or white (1)
- Chicken, roasted/cooked, leftover (16 oz)
- Butter (3 TBS)
- Sprouted flour, whole wheat or spelt (1/3 cup)
- Chicken stock, preferably homemade (1 quart)
- Bay leaf (1) Sea salt (1 teaspoon, or to taste)
- Black pepper, freshly ground
- Optional: Parsley, fresh (1 bunch)
For the dumplings:
- Milk, whole, raw (1 cup)
- Butter (4 oz)
- Sea salt (1 tsp)
- Sprouted flour, whole wheat or spelt (1 cup)
- Eggs, large, pastured (4)
Instructions
1. Clean and chop the carrots and celery into bite-sized pieces. Set aside.
2. Finely chop the onion. Set aside.
3. Tear up the chicken or cut it into bite-sized pieces. Set aside.
4. In a large sauce pan, melt the butter over medium heat.
5. Add the onion and cook until soft.
6. Stir in 1/3 cup sprouted flour.
7. Whisk in the chicken stock, and bring it to a simmer.
8. Reduce the heat to low and add the bay leaf and chicken.
9. Make the dumplings: Combine the milk, butter and sea salt in a small saucepan and bring it to a simmer.
10. When the butter is melted, add 1 cup sprouted flour. Stir until the flour has absorbed the milk and pulls away from the side of the pan.
11. Remove it from the heat.
12. Add an egg and stir until it has incorporated into the dough. Repeat with the remaining eggs.
13. Bring the soup to a boil.
14. Invert a plastic bag over your hand and scoop out the dumpling dough.
15. Remove the bag from your hand to enclose the dough in the bag to make a piping bag.
16. Cut a hole in one corner of the bag about 1/2 inch in diameter.
17. Add the chopped carrots and celery to the soup.
18. Pipe the dough into the saucepan of boiling soup, cutting them into inch-long dumplings and add them to the boiling soup.
19. The dumplings are ready when they float to the top.
20. Taste the soup for seasoning and add sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
21. If you like, chop up some parsley and add as a garnish.
Notes
I adapted this recipe from Michael Ruhlman's recipe for chicken and dumplings.
Equipment Needed for This Recipe
Saucepan
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Oh! Not only do I love this food, I love Tad’s! I’d never had chicken & dumplings until one of my father’s friends took me to Tad’s to introduce me to them. Thank you for bringing back such good memories.
Thanks for dinner tonight! I ran out of broth yesterday but if I start it now I can ‘steal’ a quart at dinnertime :).
The kids were able to make it last night for dinner – it was soooo good! I posted about it here in case you want to see your recipe used :)
https://eclecticlvng.blogspot.com/2012/03/adjective-extensions-chicken-and.html
Yum. We’ll be making this tomorrow night for family dinner. It sounds so good and so easy.
Sounds great! I’ve alwways made biscuits as my “dumplings.” This leaves me open to criticism. I should try the traditional way.
Thanks!! I love this stuff!!
The only thing I haven’t found is a replacement for the milk. I have a 2 1/2 year old who reacts horribly to dairy and we’re in the process of trying to heal her gut. I left milk out of it and it was still pretty dang good, just not creamy!
How about using almond milk? It is really easy to make and is an excellent replacement for dairy milk in any recipe.
I just made this for dinner…it is amazing!!!! Thanks for the recipe! My husband LOVED it!
I just finished making this. It was amazingly yummy. Thanks for the recipe.
Ok, I made the dumpling recipe tonight and I think the proportions of milk and flour is not correct or is it me? One cup of milk and 1 cup of flour with 4 eggs comes out runny, not doughy like. Since I did not have any sprouted flour, I had to use regular APF – do you think that makes a difference?
For those of you who made this recipe, did you use the dumpling recipe as written?
It’s been a few weeks, but I hope someone can respond with suggestions…I also made this tonight, but the dough came out way too runny with the proportions listed (I used spelt flour)…When I realized it wasn’t going to work I just dumped half of it out and adding more flour, enough to make a stiffer dough. I didn’t get as many dumplings, but the flavor was wonderful. A+ for this recipe, once I figure out the proportions of liquid and flour for the dumplings!
Rhonda
I also had an issue with the proportions of flour and milk. I had to add at least one additional cup of flour. The dumplings were a little dense for us….I even used a little white flour hoping to prevent that.
I love this recipe!! I was looking for a sprouted dumpling recipe, when I stumbled upon this recipes. The dumplings from this recipe turned out so light and fluffy! Will be using again the next time.
I'm so glad – thanks for letting me know