This chicken and dumpling soup comes straight out of Mom’s cookbook. It’s filled with soft veggies, tender chicken, and homemade dumplings — that’s comfort food at its finest!
Heads up: You’ll need to whip up homemade dumplings for this chicken dumpling soup recipe or find store-bought dumplings. Our Ukrainian-style dumplings recipe (aka halushki) is the most authentic to this soup. The kicker? You can make a big batch and freeze some for a rainy day.
What Is Chicken & Dumpling Soup?
Chicken and dumpling soup is a soup that features a light broth speckled with veggies, tender chicken, and fluffy dumplings. It’s both hearty and light, so it’s perfect year-round. The soup is often described as “chicken soup with dumplings”, or a mix of traditional chicken noodle soup with Southern-style chicken and dumplings. The difference is that chicken dumpling soup doesn’t have noodles and doesn’t use cream of chicken soup.
How to Make Mom’s Dumpling Soup
This soup requires only a little bit of legwork and a few wholesome ingredients. Here’s a quick hitter overview before you dive in.
- Prep the ingredients: Using a sharp knife, cut the chicken thighs into bite-sized pieces and chop the vegetables.
- Sauté the veggies: In a large oiled soup pot or dutch oven, sauté the diced onions and carrots until they begin to soften and are lightly golden.
- Create the soup base: Add the water and broth concentrate to the pot. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Next, add the diced chicken, stir everything together, and let the soup come to a slight boil. Let it simmer until the meat fully cooks.
- Add the dumplings and potatoes: Once the chicken is cooked, add in the homemade dumplings and simmer them until they float to the top of the broth. Next, add the diced potatoes and simmer until they are easily pierced with a fork.
- Top with green onions and serve: Top the soup with fresh green onions and remove it from heat. Enjoy!
Hot tip: Feel free to substitute a few ingredients to make it your own. For example, use butter instead of oil to sauté the veggies. Or, add in diced celery and minced garlic cloves for even more texture and flavor.
Tips & Tricks
Below, find a handful of pro tips and tricks to help you make this soup exactly like mom would.
- Use chicken thighs: The best soup comes from using chicken thighs. The dark meat brings so much flavor and such depth to the broth. In a pinch, use leftover rotisserie chicken or shredded skinless chicken breasts.
- Swap the water for low-sodium chicken broth: For even more flavor, substitute the water with low-sodium chicken broth or equal cups of chicken stock.
- Opt for yellow potatoes: The flavorful, yellow flesh of golden yellow potatoes works best with this soup. The creaminess is unparalleled!
- Substitute the dumplings: In case you don’t have time to make the dumplings, swap them out with quick dumplings made from canned biscuits. To do so, roll the refrigerated biscuit dough into balls, pop them in the soup, and cook them through.
- Garnish with your favorites: Feel free to garnish the soup with your favorite garnishes including green onions, parsley, or dill.
- Make quality dumplings: Dumplings are one of the main ingredients that make-or-break the soup, so follow this recipe to make the best homemade dumplings!
What To Serve With the Soup
While this soup is filling enough to be eaten all on its own, it’s especially wonderful when paired with freshly baked bread. Slices of fresh baguette, honey wheat bread, and focaccia are all great options to dip into a bowl of this soup. For an even more decadent pairing, try our cheddar cheese biscuits. For a fuller meal, serve the soup along with beet garlic salad or homemade caesar salad.
Storage & Reheating Tips
We love making a large pot of soup to last us a few days. Good news — this soup will last for up to a week in the fridge! Follow these tips on how to best store and reheat your leftover soup for the days (or months) to come.
- Refrigerator: To store for up to a week, place the leftover chicken dumpling soup in an airtight container in the fridge.
- Freezer: To store for up to three months, freeze cool leftover soup in a freezer safe container. To thaw, pop the soup in the fridge overnight.
- Reheating: To reheat the soup, pop it in a saucepan over medium heat until warmed through or zap it in the microwave for a couple of minutes.
Hot tip: Always thaw the soup before reheating it or else the dumplings will turn to mush.
FAQ
How do you make chicken and dumpling soup thicker?
To make chicken and dumpling soup thicker, take a bit of broth out and mix it with cornstarch. Once the cornstarch is fully incorporated, pour it back into the soup.
Is it possible to overcook dumplings in chicken and dumplings?
Yes, you can overcook the dumplings. If you leave them to simmer too long, they will begin to break apart and disintegrate.
Can I make chicken dumpling soup spicy?
Yes, it is possible to make chicken dumpling soup spicy. To kick up the heat, add a bit of crushed red pepper or a few dashes of hot sauce to the soup.
More Hearty Soup Recipes
- Split Pea Soup (My Grandma’s Recipe) – Slavic version of traditional split pea soup
- Chicken Tortilla Soup – A year round favorite with all the toppings
- Easy Beef and Barley Soup Recipe – Beef, barley, and mushrooms make the bulk of this warming soup
- Turkey Neck Soup – An underrated and delicious soup made with turkey neck
- Chicken and Wild Rice Soup – Hearty and creamy chicken and rice soup
Recipe
Ingredients
- 1/2 yellow onion diced
- 2 small carrots chopped
- 1 tbsp oil for cooking
- 4 qts water
- 1 tbsp Chicken Better Than Bouillon
- 1 tsp ground black pepper adjust to taste
- 1 tbsp salt adjust to taste
- 3 boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 2 cups homemade dumplings
- 3 medium potatoes peeled and chopped
- 1/2 cup green onions chopped
Instructions
- Prepare the ingredients and chop veggies. Cut the chicken thighs into bite-sized pieces.
- Pour the oil into a soup pot, then sauté the onion and carrots until they're lightly golden.
- Add the water, Better than Bouillon broth concentrate, and season with salt and black pepper to taste. Add the diced chicken and let the soup simmer until it's fully cooked, about 20 minutes.
- Add in the dumplings and simmer until they float to the top.
- Add potatoes to the soup and simmer until they are easily pierced with a fork. Add in the diced green onions, then remove the soup from heat.
- Serve immediately and enjoy!
Home smells beautiful from!! split pea soup! simmering on cold day! Trying this moms recipe! My grandma used half& half! near the end! So this is different but good!!
Yay! That's amazing. Love when the smell of a food fills a house with good memories. 🙂
This is a very, very good chicken-vegetable soup— sensible, flavourful, and user-friendly. It’s the kind of soup you can eat when you’re recovering from surgery, and want something gentle-but-tasty. My only problem was the halushki— I could *not* get them right, despite repeated tries. Perhaps I needed to cut them much thinner. I finally threw a batch of the potato-cheese pierogi into the soup instead— which made a wonderfully sybaritic soup.
Hi Wendy- thanks for the feedback. I agree, this soup is the epitome of comfort food! I'm sorry the halushki wouldn't turn out, was it the dough or what seemed to be the main issue? Maybe I can help troubleshoot.
I think I may not have rolled out the “snakes” skinny enough, and perhaps also sliced too thickly. The first batch stayed very dense inside. The second batch, sliced more thinly, worked out a bit better— but still too dense in center. I tried different cooking times; different heat— but I kept getting dumplings that had a tender outer layer, and an heavy, dense center. I also tried to make sure I used a light hand with the flour. I think I may need to roll those “snakes” out longer and thinner, and try slicing the halushki 1/4” thick? Or maybe I still need a lighter hand with the flour. Anyhow, I have sincere admiration for you practical approach to cooking. Full five stars— plus at least one bonus star! 🙂
Thank you for your input! So am learning how to make dumpings so many different ways! Maybe you need to try different flour? Don't give up that'sy tomorrow dish! Stay happy cooking and enjoy this adventure 😊 my certain your family will enjoy 😉
That's a good call Elaine. The kind of flour you use matters. We love using high-protein flours like Bob's Red Mill or King Arthur.
Ah, I see. Hopefully next time your halushki will be absolute perfection! Thank you for the kind feedback, Wendy, it means a lot! 🙂
Great recipe! I made it today and only made a half of dumplings. Came out perfect and flavorful.
Thank you for all your hard work.
It just doesn't get any more Ukrainian than this!!!
Thank you por posting the video the other day. We all pray for Ukraine for our brothers and sisters 🙏
Never seen unhealthy Ukrainian! Their food so much flavor and healthy amazing! 😋 so excited to start these grate recipes!!!
Hi Lena, thank you for your kind words and feedback on the recipe!
Perfect time of the year for this recipe - very delicious dish!
Thanks, Melissa! We 100% agree. Once it's sweater weather, I'm making dumpling soup to curl up to. Hope you're staying warm and healthy!
One of my favorite soup recipes ever!! So delicious and comforting!
Thanks, Jennifer!! It is the perfect recipe for a comforting meal!
This tasted so amazing! Thanks a lot for sharing this super easy to make cookies recipe! Fam really loves it! Will surely have this again! Highly recommended!
Hi Alyssa - That's awesome! It's straight out of my family's cookbook and such a beloved recipe around here too. Thank you for your kind words - it means alot!
I gotta try it! But I am surprised there is no finely chopped fresh dill.
Phil, so funny, I feel like my mom added dill to every soup. Now I am surprised too. Totally can be added. 🙂
Hmmmm interesting that you add zajarka before cooking the chicken and then wait to cook the chicken then dumplings and then add potatoes. Doesn't it get to mushy that way?
Either way I'm making dumpling soup right now already have my broth all cooked up just logging in to check your dumping recipe 🙂
I make it before in this case because I want for all the carrots and onion to be almost invisible but still to carry that flavor. But either way will work, I just changed things up for this recipe
This was the best dumpling soup that I've ever tried! Thanks for a great recipe again.
Omg! you have totally made my day!
Looks oh so so good....
Thank you Natalya! It's funny that we have the same name 🙂