Chicken & Dumplings {made easy!}

Comfort Food - fresh from the oven!

     The preparation on this recipe is simple and easy (and who doesn't like that on busy days.)  You can make my homemade 'drop type biscuits' or use store bought.   Great thing is, you decide what works for you, even changing up the filling works (see my kitchen note at end of the recipe) I've also added the link to my Homemade Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup.  It all tastes great!  
     I used my smaller cast iron Dutch oven for this recipe as it has a heavy lid for going into the oven and creating a nice steam for my dumplings to rise but, you can certainly use a cast iron skillet and cover it with foil (just make sure to get a tight seal.)  I hope you make and enjoy this as much as we do.  ~Enjoy! Diane 

Dutch Oven Chicken & Dumplings

Ingredients:
1/2 Tablespoon olive oil or 1 Tablespoon of butter or ghee
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped carrot 
1/2 cups chicken broth (you can add up to 1 Cup depending on how thin/thick you want your sauce) 
2-3 cups cooked chopped chicken; cut into 1" dice.
1 tablespoon dried parsley 
salt & pepper to taste 
2 cans cream of chicken soup 
1 small 5 count can Pillsbury "Southern Homestyle" biscuits or my 'drop' biscuits (see recipe below) 

Instructions 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

• In an ovenproof Dutch oven or cast-iron skillet, lightly salt and pepper vegetables and cook onion, carrots and celery in olive oil or ghee over medium heat for about 4 minutes, until softened. Add in the chicken broth. Let simmer. 
• In a bowl, combine chicken, condensed cream of chicken soup and parsley. Stir into vegetable mixture. 
• If using a can of store-bought biscuits, peel each biscuit in half and place on top of chicken mixture covering the entire top surface, or make homemade "drop" biscuits and do the same (see below). 
• Bake 20 minutes, covered with lid of Dutch oven (with foil if using oven proof skillet) then remove lid/foil and bake an additional 20 minutes, or until biscuits are golden brown.   Serve hot.

If you cannot find Pillsbury Home-style Biscuits, you can substitute my homemade "drop" biscuits in their place. (see recipe below)

Homemade "Drop" Biscuits

Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoon butter
1/2 - 3/4 cup milk

Directions:
Stir together flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt in medium size bowl. Cut in butter with fork, until crumbly. Stir in milk to make a soft dough. Tear dough into 6 pieces, roll slightly into ball, flatted and lay on-top of Chicken mixture. Makes 6 biscuits.

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Kitchen Note 1:  Switch the filling up a bit, you can try adding in some cooked wild rice, different vegetables like green beans or peas - it's a wonderful recipe!  Pure comfort food! 

Plated Dutch Oven Chicken & Dumplings