The BEST Southern Chicken and Dumplings Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What are southern dumplings made of? ›

Dumplings: In a large bowl, mix flour, salt, baking powder and shortening with a fork. Add egg and 1/2 cup milk; mix to form dough. Roll dough to 1/4-inch thickness on floured surface. Cut into four-inch strips with sharp knife.

Keep the pot at a gentle simmer when cooking the dumplings. An aggressive simmer or boiling will break them apart. Keep the heat low and cover the pot so that they steam.

How can I thicken stove top chicken and dumplings? You can thicken this dish by adding more flour, or even cornstarch. Create a slurry with either of these ingredients and milk or water, then stir into your broth base until you get your desired consistency.

Don't Overwork the Dumpling Dough

Stir everything together until the wet and dry ingredients are combined and you don't see any more dry flour. The dough might look a little lumpy, but that's okay! Overworking the dough is one of the easiest ways to end up with tough dumplings.

Dumplings are made from a simple dough consisting of all-purpose flour, water, and salt. The shaped dumplings are either fried in a pan until golden brown or boiled in a soup.

Southern dumplings are made with shortening and are simmered in the broth. Northern dumplings — they aren't necessarily from the north, but they aren't southern dumplings so I am calling them northern — are made with butter and are steamed on the top of the pot.

Cover and simmer until dumplings are cooked through, about 15 minutes. Once you have covered the pan, do not uncover and peek while the dumplings are cooking! In order for the dumplings to be light and fluffy, they must steam, not boil. Uncovering the pan releases the steam.

Drop the dough by spoonfuls onto the meat or vegetables in the stew, not into the gravy or liquid. If the dough is dropped right into the liquid, the simmering action may break up the dumplings. Also, the dough will soak up moisture from the liquid so the dumplings will become soft and soggy.

Cover up. As you fold your dumplings, keep them covered with a slightly damp kitchen towel. This prevents the dumplings from drying out (dry skins can split when cooked). Making fresh dumpling wrappers isn't hard when you have Hetty McKinnon to guide you.

Chicken Broth Substitute: Salted Butter + Water

If you don't have broth on hand and want a little more flavor than just plain water, try subbing in 1 cup of water plus 1 tablespoon of butter for every cup of chicken broth in your recipe. The butter will help create a richer flavor than just water alone.

How to tell when chicken and dumplings are done? ›

Here's how you can tell whether your chicken and dumpling soup is done and ready to eat. If the biscuit pieces feel gooey or mushy, they are not thoroughly cooked—give them more time to simmer in the rapidly boiling liquid until perfectly pillowy and fluffy.

Hand-mincing meat and adding more pork belly results in the juiciest dumplings. Traditionally, some Chinese cuisine uses hand minced meat for their dishes. For example, lots of dim sum items like siu mai, pork buns, beef meatball, and more use hand minced meat to control the texture and fat content of the dish!

A pinch of salt seasons the dumplings and enhances the flavors of the other ingredients. Cold butter or margarine is cut into the flour mixture to bind the dry ingredients together. It also keeps the dumplings light and tender. Whole milk helps create a smooth, moist dough.

To make biscuit dumplings that are fluffy it's important to not over-mix the dough. Stop mixing once a soft dough forms. If you mix the dough too long, it will create dense and chewy dumplings that will take too long to cook all the way through.

What are dumplings made of? The dumpling dough is made of three main ingredients: flour, water and salt.

Although the most popular type is pork dumplings in northern China, my favorite flavor from Wanchai Ferry is beef and corn dumplings. Today I'm sharing this beef dumpling recipe with you, so you can also get to know how good they are! Making beef dumplings is a bit more challenging than pork dumplings.

There are two general categories of Chinese dumplings. The crescent-shaped dumplings are called gao. And the more purse-shaped and round ones are called the bao.

Often they are filled with pork, cabbage, shiitake mushrooms, and garlic chives, dumplings can take on any filling by replacing some ingredients for others, or skipping some altogether.