A hearty chicken stew with carrots and potatoes, topped with super-easy muffin-style cheddar dumplings. They’re light and fluffy and soak up the sauce beautifully. Everyone fights over the last dumpling!
These aren’t your regular suet dumplings, these are super easy, muffin-style dumplings that are a little lighter, and full of flavour.
They top the tasty chicken and veggie-packed stew, making a whole meal, without the need for any sides.
**Although I did notice that I’ve photographed it with bread ha ha. I can’t help it, bread and stew look nice together. I totally ate the bread too.
📋 Ingredients
Chicken Stew Ingredients
Cheddar dumplings Ingredients
📺 Watch how to make it
Full recipe with detailed steps in the recipe card at the end of this post.
👩🍳PRO TIP You can make the stew part of the recipe ahead of time, then refrigerate and freeze it. See the recipe card further below for instructions on this.
You could also call this recipe a chicken cobbler. I usually think of cobblers as being a sweet dish, but by using a savoury muffin/scone type topping, it works works brilliantly with a stew or casserole.
🍽️ More stews you could add these dumplings to
- Scottish beef stew
- Corned beef hash
- Slow-cooked pork casserole
- Creamy chicken and mushroom casserole
A lovely warming bowl of this on an Autumn evening. Bliss!
This recipe is from my book ‘It’s all about Dinner‘ (you’ll find lots of other fab dinner recipes in there too).
👇Recipe card further below 👇
🍲 More fantastic stew and casserole recipes
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Chicken Stew & Dumplings Recipe
Ingredients
Chicken Stew:
- 8 skinless and boneless chicken thigh fillets (about 720g/1.5lbs), quartered
- 3 carrots peeled and chopped into chunks
- 3 medium sized potatoes peeled and chopped into small chunks
- 2 sticks of celery sliced
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 1.2 litres (5 cups) chicken stock (water plus 3 stock cubes is fine)
- 45 g (3 tbsp) unsalted butter
- 1 large onion peeled and finely chopped
- 50 g (1/2 cup minus 1 tbsp) plain (all-purpose) flour
Dumplings:
- 240 g (2 cups) plain (all-purpose) flour
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 100 g (1 packed cup) grated strong cheddar
- ½ tsp dried parsley
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter melted
- 180 ml (3/4 cup) milk
To Serve:
- freshly chopped parsley
Instructions
- Add the chicken, carrots, potatoes, celery, salt, pepper, thyme, and stock to a large saucepan. Bring to the boil and allow to simmer for 15 minutes and then turn off the heat.8 skinless and boneless chicken thigh fillets, 3 carrots, 3 medium sized potatoes, 2 sticks of celery, ½ tsp salt, ½ tsp black pepper, 1 tsp dried thyme, 1.2 litres (5 cups) chicken stock
- Preheat the oven to 190C/375F (fan).
- When the chicken and vegetables are cooked, melt the butter in a large, deep casserole dish, over a medium heat. Add the onion and cook for about 5-6 minutes, stirring often, until softened.45 g (3 tbsp) unsalted butter, 1 large onion
- Add in the flour and mix it into the onions and butter using a balloon whisk. It should form into a creamy paste (a roux).50 g (1/2 cup minus 1 tbsp) plain (all-purpose) flour
- Allow the roux to cook for a minute whilst stirring with your whisk, then add in a ladle of the stock from the chicken broth (try to get mostly stock – not the chicken/veggies). Stir the broth into the mixture, using your whisk.
- Repeat this until you have ladled out most of the stock from the chicken pan. Bring to the boil, and simmer gently, while stirring for a couple of minutes, until the sauce thickens.
- Then pour the remaining stock, plus the chicken and vegetables into the pan with the thickened sauce.
- Allow to simmer for a few minutes, while you make the dumplings.
- Place the flour, baking powder, cheese, and parsley in a bowl and mix together.240 g (2 cups) plain (all-purpose) flour, 3 tsp baking powder, 100 g (1 packed cup) grated strong cheddar, ½ tsp dried parsley
- Add the melted butter and three-quarters of the milk, and stir together until you get a sticky dough – adding more milk if needed.2 tbsp unsalted butter, 180 ml (3/4 cup) milk
- Turn off the heat on the pan with the chicken. Add large blobs of the dumpling mixture to the top of the casserole using two spoons.
- Place in the oven to cook for 15-20 minutes, until the dumplings are lightly browned.
- Take out of the oven and leave to rest for 5 minutes before serving, topped with fresh parsley.freshly chopped parsley
Video
Notes
Defrost overnight in the refrigerator. To reheat and finish the recipe, heat the stew through in the casserole dish, over the hob/burner, until piping hot (you may need to add a splash of stock or water to loosen it up a little). Then continue on with the recipe, making, adding and baking the dumpling topping with the stew. Nutritional information is approximate, per serving, based on this recipe serving 6 people.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Absolutely delicious. I was amazed at how good this was, it’s now one of my regular go to recipes!
I struggle not to over eat when I make it though, because it’s just too tasty….
Unbelievable!
My favourite stew ever…….
Absolutely gorgeous. So easy to make and tasted delicious.
Beautiful and tasty comfort food.
I made this recipe last night. My husband and I loved it! I grew up in the Southern Appalachian region of the US & will say, I haven’t had ANY chicken & dumplings that could touch the flavor & texture of these since I was a little girl (I’m 58). My beloved grandmother’s recipe tasted like this dish & it was like a hug from her. These dumplings are more tender & flavorful than my typical recipe, which are steamed in the pot. I hope you love this as much as we did. THIS will be my go-to recipe going forward. Thank you! ❤️
Thank you for this and all your recipes,they all work,I can’t say the same for all the famous television chefs apart from Delia..Please keep them coming.
My husband saw this recipe
Online .he said
That looks deliciouse.
Well
I cooked it
And it is .
I thought my mum made best dumplings .but
Yummm .thank you its a keeper.
can dumplings be made in slow cooker?
This is perfect and i love the way everything goes in the pan together to start! (Like my Mum used to do). Great to make ahead and have ready to go with the dumplings, I usually use suet but this way is much better, especially with the garlic etc. Thanks for a lovely recipe to start the winter with.
Could this be cooked in a slow cooker