Southern Chicken and Flat Dumplings Recipe

A square image of a plate of chicken with Southern-style, flat dumplings.

Southern Chicken and Flat Dumplings Recipe

Make chicken and dumplings the southern way, with flat or slick dumplings. Up the ante by seasoning your dumplings and making them with some bacon fat or chicken fat. Yes. Approximate cooking times for both pressure cooker/Instant Pot and Dutch oven included.

Course Poultry

Cuisine American

Prep Time 45

Cook Time 2

Total Time 2 45

Servings servings

Calories 435kcal

Author Jennifer Field

Equipment

5 Quart Dutch Oven

Ingredients

For the Chicken

1 fryer/roaster (4-5 pounds)
2 quarts organic chicken stock or 1 quart and water to cover the chicken
1 medium onion washed and quartered
2 ribs celery washed and cut into 3rds. If they have leaves, no need to cut them off
3 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
3 teaspoons salt I use Morton's kosher. Use 1 1/2 teaspoons if using table salt. Always salt to taste, using my measurement as a guide only
1 clove garlic minced
1/4-1/2 teaspoon smoked black pepper or several grindings of black pepper
½ teaspoon poultry seasoning
Additional salt and pepper as needed, to taste

For the Dumplings

2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon poultry seasoning
¼ teaspoon smoked black pepper or several grinds of black pepper
2 Tablespoons solid chicken fat bacon fat, butter, or shortening (or a mix. Your call)
¾ cup whole milk

Instructions

For the Chicken

Remove the pouch of giblets from the cavity of your chicken and use for another purpose. If your chicken came with a neck, you can cook that right along with the rest.
In a Dutch oven or pot large enough to hold your chicken, place the chicken (and neck, if you have one), boxed stock, onion, celery, garlic, vinegar, poultry seasoning and smoked pepper or peppercorns. If the liquid doesn't cover the chicken and vegetables, add water until it does. Save the salt until your stock has finished cooking.
Turn the heat to medium, and let the pot come to a boil. Turn down the heat to low to keep your chicken at a high simmer, and cook until the chicken is done, about 35-45 minutes.
Carefully drain the liquid from the chicken over the pot, and then remove the chicken to a cutting board. (I use tongs to do this.) Cut off wings and return them to the pot.
Cut off the cooked meat, white and dark, in large chunks, put it in a bowl or on a plate, cover and refrigerate.
Return the skin and carcass with whatever meat is still attached back to the pot and continue to simmer for another 1 1/2 hours or so, or until any remaining meat is falling off the bones. Remove from heat, pick out remaining meat and add to the bowl of chicken already in the fridge. Pull out remaining bones and vegetables and then strain the stock into a large bowl or pitcher.
Rinse out your pot, and return strained stock to it. Bring it to a boil, and taste and adjust the seasonings as necessary. See NOTES to cut the work into 2 days.
Drop the dumplings (see instructions below) into the boiling broth, a few at a time, until all are in there. The pan will be very crowded, but all will be well.
Boil for about 20 minutes, or until dumplings are cooked through. After the first 5 minutes, turn the heat down to low and cover the pot to let the dumplings cook/steam. A few of the smaller bits of dumpling may dissolve, and that's totally fine. This is what thickens your broth into a silky, dreamy gravy.
Return the reserved chicken to the pot to reheat, about 5 minutes. You can also let the chicken and dumplings hang out over very low heat for a few hours. The longer it sits, the thicker the sauce will be.
Serve in bowls with a fork and a spoon. Have some good bread or rolls handy to sop up the extra sauce.

For the Dumplings

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, poultry seasoning and black pepper.
Drop in the chicken fat, bacon fat, butter, or shortening, and rub in with your fingertips until it is completely incorporated. No pea-sized pieces here. You want it to disappear.
Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and stream in the milk.
Bring the dough together with a fork. It will be fairly wet.
Liberally flour your counter.
Scrape the dumpling dough onto the floured surface. Liberally flour the top of the dough and roll out into a rough rectangle about 1/8-3/16" thick. If the dough sticks, add some more flour to assist with rolling, but don't knead it in. Use your dough scraper to lift the dough and toss some flour underneath and add some to the top as necessary.
Brush excess flour off the top of the dough. Cut into 2"x3" rectangles (don't measure--just use a pizza cutter and go for it), and they're ready to be cooked.

Video

Notes

To spread the work over two days

Once you have cut the majority of the meat off the bones and returned them to the pan, continue cooking until most of the connective tissue has dissolved and the carcass is falling apart.

Cool as-is, and then refrigerate overnight.

The next day, scrape off any solid fat on the surface, warm up the stock to loosen it up, then strain out veggies and bones and proceed with the recipe.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:

Using boxed chicken stock for the initial cooking liquid adds depth and intense chicken flavor to the dish. If you only have 1 box, worry not. Use it and add water to cover your chicken and vegetables.

You don't have to use bacon fat in the dumplings. You don't even have to season the dumplings. But I think you'll be happy if you do both!

Notice I'm not giving weights here. No need to be super precise, even with the dumplings. If you want a weight for the flour, go with 9 oz or 255 grams.

Instant Pot Instructions

Place chicken, stock and/or water, onion, celery, peppercorn, garlic, and apple cider vinegar into the insert for your Instant Pot.
Lock on cover and cook on high for 33 minutes with 30 minutes of natural pressure release.
Release any remaining pressure, remove chicken, cut off meat, and refrigerate it.
Return carcass to pot, lock on the lid, and cook on high for an additional 45 minutes with 30 minutes of NPR.
Strain stock into a large bowl or pitcher, rescuing any bits of meat that you can to add to the refrigerated meat.
Return strained stock back to the insert and bring to a boil on saute.
Cook the dumplings in the boiling stock, adjust seasonings, add back the reserved chicken to heat through, and serve.

Nutrition