Chicken Dumpling Bake with a Golden Biscuit Top: Step-by-Step Instructions

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 200 °C (400 °F) and take out a baking dish of about 23 x 33 cm. Nothing needs greasing: the filling is rich enough on its own.
2. Melt the 3 tablespoons of butter in a large pan over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots and celery and cook for 6 to 8 minutes, until the onion is soft and the carrots have lost their raw crunch.
3. Sprinkle the 3 tablespoons of flour over the vegetables and stir constantly for 2 minutes. The mixture will look like wet sand; this cooks out the floury taste and is what thickens the filling later.
4. Pour in the hot stock a third at a time, stirring well between each addition so no lumps form. Then add the milk and let the sauce bubble gently for 3 minutes, until it coats the back of a spoon.
5. Stir in the chicken, the frozen peas, the thyme, the garlic powder and plenty of black pepper. Taste the sauce now: it should be slightly stronger than you want, because the dumplings will absorb some of it.
6. Pour everything into the baking dish and spread it level.
7. Make the dumplings: put the self-raising flour in a bowl, add the cold cubed butter and rub it in with your fingertips until the mixture looks like coarse breadcrumbs. Pour in the cold buttermilk and stir with a knife just until a shaggy dough forms. Stop as soon as there is no dry flour left; overworking it gives tough, heavy dumplings.
8. Drop heaped spoonfuls of dough over the filling, leaving a small gap between them so the steam can escape and the sides can brown. You should get 8 to 10 dumplings.
9. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the tops are deep golden and a skewer pushed into the middle of the thickest dumpling comes out clean. If the tops colour too fast, lay a sheet of foil loosely over the dish for the last 10 minutes.
10. Let the dish rest for 10 minutes before serving. The filling thickens as it cools and the dumplings finish cooking in the residual heat.

Recipe Variations

Herb dumplings. Stir two tablespoons of chopped parsley or chives into the dough. It costs nothing and the tops look far better.

Cheese top. Add 60 g of grated mature cheddar to the dumpling dough, or scatter it over the tops for the last five minutes.

Turkey after the holidays. Leftover turkey works exactly like the chicken and is arguably better, since the darker meat holds up in the sauce.

Vegetarian. Swap the chicken for a tin of drained white beans and 250 g of sliced mushrooms browned with the onion, and use vegetable stock.

Mushroom and bacon. Fry 100 g of chopped bacon before the vegetables and leave the fat in the pan; cut the butter down to two tablespoons.

Serving Ideas

This is a complete dinner on its own, so keep whatever goes beside it light. Steamed green beans, a bowl of peas or a plain green salad with a sharp dressing are all it needs.

If you are feeding a crowd, serve it straight from the dish in the middle of the table with a big spoon and let people help themselves; it looks generous and nothing is lost in plating.

Leftovers are good cold the next day, but better reheated in a hot oven for fifteen minutes so the dumpling tops crisp again.

Keeping It Fresh

Cover the cooled dish and keep it in the fridge for up to three days. Reheat portions in the oven at 180 °C for 15 to 20 minutes, covered with foil for the first ten so the dumplings do not dry out.

A microwave works for one portion in a hurry, though the dumpling will be soft rather than golden. Add a spoonful of milk or stock before reheating, because the filling thickens overnight.

Freeze the filling alone for up to three months. Thaw it in the fridge, warm it through in a pan and bake with fresh dumplings on top.

Reader Questions Answered

Can I use raw chicken instead of cooked?

Yes. Cut 500 g of boneless thighs into chunks, brown them in the butter first, then lift them out and continue with the vegetables. Return them with the stock so they finish cooking in the sauce.

Why are my dumplings doughy in the middle?

Almost always because they were too big or crowded together. Keep them to a heaped tablespoon each and leave gaps so the heat reaches the sides.

Can I make it ahead?

Make the filling up to two days ahead and keep it in the fridge. Warm it on the hob before adding the dumplings, because a cold filling leaves the bottoms pale and soft.

What can I use instead of buttermilk?

Put a tablespoon of lemon juice or white vinegar in a measuring jug, top it up to 180 ml with milk and leave it for five minutes.

Does it freeze well?

The filling freezes well on its own for up to three months. Baked dumplings go soft after freezing, so it is better to freeze the filling and bake fresh dumplings on the day.

Wrapping Up

Cook the vegetables, cook the flour, build the sauce, spoon the dough on top and let the oven finish it. That is the whole recipe, and once you have made it once you will stop measuring the vegetables.

It is the kind of dinner that makes a Tuesday feel organised, out of a few things you already had in the fridge.

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Learn more: Dumpling on Wikipedia · food storage & safety (FoodSafety.gov).