The Canned Shortcut For Ridiculously Easy Chicken And Dumplings

Homemade chicken and dumplings have comforted hungry tummies for centuries, with one of the earlier mentions of the dish appearing in 1879 in the cookbook "Housekeeping in Old Virginia" by Marion Cabell Tyree. Given that the chicken in the recipe simmered for hours, the resulting dish probably tasted sufficiently succulent and was worth the time one spent cooling the proverbial heels. Fortunately for 21st-century chicken and dumpling lovers, there's a quicker way to make it that tastes every bit as delish as its predecessor without the wait.

The trick lies in the use of the canned soup and biscuits that you'll find in your grocer's canned and refrigerated food aisles. The basic recipe calls for a 32-ounce carton of chicken broth, plus one can of cream of chicken soup. Its flavor comes from ¼ teaspoon of poultry seasoning, though you can adjust that amount to suit your tastes. Three cups of shredded chicken, or about 1½ pounds of poultry, rounds out the recipe, which you'll set to simmering for 5 to 10 minutes. Leftover baked chicken works for this if you want to use up leftovers. Next, add single cup of chopped carrots and three stalks of celery to bring fiber to the meal and some garden-fresh flavor. Finally, the addition of the biscuit noodles turn a plain chicken soup recipe into chicken and dumplings. Roll the dough out and cut the biscuits into noodle-shaped strips. All this gets stirred regularly while all the ingredients simmer together for another 20 minutes.

While it's possible to make chicken and dumplings without sweating the carrots and celery first, you'll take the flavor profile of this dish up a notch if you sweat the vegetables first. If you're unfamiliar with the term "sweating the vegetables," here's what you need to know. Sweating breaks down the tough cellular walls of the veggies, and in the process, releases an infusion of flavors, vegetable sugars, and moisture into the soup. 

This release of moisture — hence, the term "sweating" — happens when your chopped or diced vegetables are cooked in some kind of fat — butter or oil, usually — on a low setting. If you take this step when making your chicken and dumplings, take care to prevent the veggies from turning brown. You just want to soften them. One final word: Be sure that you don't cut the veggies the wrong way. That is, you want to chop them in fairly even and uniform sizes — quarter-inch slices or cubes work best. This size allows them to cook fairly quickly. Once you've sweated them, add them to the simmering broth, along with the dumplings.

Like many old-fashioned recipes that get handed down from generation to generation, chicken and dumplings come in a number of versions. Making the recipe with long noodles only counts as one version of this meal. A fun variation on this theme substitutes the strip noodles for round dumplings that are similar in size and appearance to Asian dumplings, like steamed buns you find on the menu when you order dim sum. In this case, you don't roll the biscuits out flat. Instead, cut them into quarter pieces, and drop them into the soup after the chicken ingredients have simmered for a couple of minutes. They'll fluff up during the process of cooking.

And speaking of traditional recipes, some versions of chicken and dumplings don't call for any vegetables at all, just straight chicken, vegetable or chicken stock, and the dumplings. If you find yourself craving something simpler, try leaving the veggies out of the recipe to see how you like it. Finally, if you're short on poultry seasoning, try using the spices you normally would when you make up a basic roasted chicken recipe. These include oregano, rosemary, black pepper, thyme, and sage. Or try smoked paprika, cayenne pepper, onion or garlic powder, and cumin to create a slightly spicy, down-to-earth flavor. It's worth experimenting to find the flavors you like best.