The BEST Gluten, Dairy & Egg Free Chicken & Dumplings!

Typically I only post straight baked goods here in the club as I think quality baked goods are harder to find online & that there are a million recipes for free. BUT.. there are some recipes that include “baked” elements and Ive noticed a gap for recipes like this one. I tried a few recipes over the years for gluten free chicken and dumplings and they were ok.. but honestly pretty meh.

I also thought to do a chicken noodles soup with really good homemade gluten free noodles. Then there’s bread bowls with some sort of delicious soup to go in them. SO I think I’m going to start including some comfort food recipes that I know I can put in the time and energy to make better than the free recipes. To be clear I don’t mean to insult any other recipe developers hard work. I created the club so that I could make recipe developing my full time job- allowing me the opportunity to test recipes on repeat as many times as I needed to so they could be perfect. That is an expensive and time consuming endeavor that not everyone is able to make the time to do or have the patience for. Which is totally ok- there are tons of wonderful free recipes online too. :) I just really enjoy taking the more challenging recipe concepts and perfecting them. For whatever reason I have a lot of patience for this ONE thing in life- and can tolerate a lot of failure/ trial and error.

The other issue I noticed is that a lot of recipes will call for “gluten free all purpose flour” which recipe developers do trying to appease peoples desire for flexible recipes that can be made with whatever they have on hand. I totally get this!! BUT here’s the issue y’all.. there are no two gluten free all purpose flours that work even remotely the same. SO therefore your recipe could turn out dramatically different than the way the author intended. Some flours will not have the amount of xanthan gum or structure needed for a dumpling to hold together and you’ll end up with disgusting mush. Its a crap shoot & I strongly dislike that. If I’m going to invest my time and money into making someone else’s recipe..it needs to work. So therefore I do not call for any old all purpose flour in my recipes I call for specific ingredients that will work for you exactly as they have for me. I try to select a brand that is easy to find. Which is why king arthur is my go to for as many recipes as possible.

I also wanted to note that YES I labeled this recipe as vegan! No the recipe as written is not vegan. But if you scroll down you’ll see I included a few little modifications to make it vegan. It’ll still be really good!

Chicken and dumplings is easily in my top favorite all time meals. But ONLY if made a very very specific way with a specific flavor and the dumplings must have a soft and fluffy texture on the inside with a slightly chewy exterior. Some of you may not know that I personally don’t need to eat gluten free. I did for a number of years but have since been able to get rid of all food sensitivities. In that time period I developed my passion for special diet recipe development- so really no matter how I’m personally eating this will always remain my focus. My husband feels best eating gluten free so I would say its mostly what I buy and cook for the most part.

But.. i’ve been “cheating” for a few years now. I was so unimpressed with the gluten free chicken and dumpling recipes that I had tried and I loved my original recipe that used gluten SO much that when I made it I would just cave and use regular all purpose flour. As a result I rarely made it as gluten tends to make my husbands asthma flare up. I finally bit the bullet and started experimenting to get the PERFECT gluten free dumpling. AND OHHH MY GOODNESS did I nail it!!! These dumplings taste EXACTLY like the ones I made with regular all purpose flour!! I am just thrilled to have this recipe in our arsenal now and I know I’ll make it once a month in the winter months.

The flavor is a combination of the soup/stew is butter, garlic, thyme with a hint of rosemary. SO GOOD. I never know what to call it because its really the most like a thin gravy. Whatever it is..its easily one of the best comfort foods in existence. Don’t skip this one! Try it and it’ll become a regular recipe in rotation.

Ingredients:

King Arthur measure for measure gluten free flour: As noted above- no two gluten free flour blends work the same. The idea of a cup for cup is a marketing ploy. There are blends that work decent in place of one another or in place of gluten but never exactly the same. Each and every blend is totally different. For example I LOVE better batter - but in this recipe it would make for some seriously gummy bread. I chose King Arthur as its lower in gum and therefore I knew my dumplings would end up soft, light and delicate on the inside.

So of course you are welcome to experiment. But please keep in mind that there are no guarantees. Any change means the recipe will change. I opted to use King Arthur as I think its the easiest gluten free flour blend to come by these days.

Butter: For this recipe you can use any butter that you wish. Regular or any brand that is dairy free. If your goal is to make this recipe vegan- opt for dairy free butter.

Chicken: You can use raw chicken thighs or even buy an already cooked rotisserie chicken and shred the meat to throw in! If you want to make the recipe vegan obviously omit the chicken.

Chicken Broth: My favorite hands down is the organic better than bouillon line. I use that for every recipe that requires broth. They have a veggie based bouillon that is quite delicious too and that would work well to make this recipe vegan. If you use any other brand of broth- the recipe will be fine but may lack some on the flavor mine has. You may need to up the salt and spices some to get a bit more flavor.

Full fat coconut milk: Any brand is fine- just opt for full fat. If you have a Whole Foods near you I really like their canned coconut milk and canned coconut cream. I usually use one can of each to make this recipe. It creates the perfect amount of creaminess. If you don’t like the flavor of coconut milk- don’t worry you cant taste it whatsoever in this recipe. If you would prefer to use dairy you would use half and half . Or a mix of whole milk and half and half.

One final note- make sure to use a pot no smaller than a 6 quart soup pot or dutch oven! You can go a little larger if you wish- but anything smaller and your chicken and dumplings will overflow.

Gluten Free Chicken & Dumplings

Print

With ImageWithout Image

Yield: 12

Author: Brittany Angell

Prep time: 20 MinCook time: 80 MinTotal time: 1 H & 40 M

This recipe is a special one!! I have been making it for years- and it’s one of my all time favorite meals. BUT I must admit I was not making it gluten free. I had tried recipes online and none of them quite cut it for me. The dumplings must be the perfect flavor and texture. I finally decided to dig into nailing down a perfect dumpling & truly this recipe can’t be best. It will become a staple in your home.

Ingredients

Chicken Soup/Stew

• 6 Tbsp Butter (dairy or nondairy)
• 1 Large Onion chopped
• 5 Stalks of celery chopped
• 1- 1 1/2 Cups Finely chopped carrots
• 1 lb of Chicken thighs (Precooked- from a rotisserie or uncooked/chopped chicken thighs.)
• 2 - 2 1/2 Tsp Salt
• 1 Tsp Black Pepper
• 2 1/2 Tsp fresh or dried Thyme
• 1/2 Tsp fresh or dried Rosemary
• 1 Tbsp + 1 Tsp Garlic Powder
• 2 cans full fat coconut milk or coconut cream
• 6 cups of Chicken Broth (I use 6 tsp of organic better than bouillon + 6 cups of water)
• 6 Tbsp of King Arthur Measure for Measure flour.

Dumplings

• 2 3/4 cups King Arthur Measure for Measure All Purpose Flour
• 1 cup Tapioca Starch
• 2 Tbsp Baking Powder (Double acting preferred) *Bobs red mill is the best for this recipe as you wont have a baking powder aftertaste.
• 1/4 Tsp Xanthan Gum
• 1 1/2 tsp. Salt
• 1/2 tsp. Pepper
• 4 tbsp butter melted (dairy or nondairy) or a mild flavored oil
• 2 Cups of Milk (Dairy or Nondairy)

Instructions

1. Add to a large pot the butter and turn the heat to medium low. Add in the chopped onions, celery and carrots & sauté for 5-10 minutes until onions are translucent. Add in the chicken thighs and sauté for a few minutes. Stir in all of your spices and add the King Arthur flour. (Note: if you don’t have an hour or more to slowly simmer and thicken the soup- you may use 8 tbsp of flour instead to get it to the right thickness without needing it to condense at all.).
2. Pour in the cans of coconut milk and broth. Give it a whisk to make sure the flour is fully mixed in. Bring the soup to a gentle simmer & let it cook for 1-2 hours stirring it every now and then prevent it from sticking to the bottom. I like to give it time to really develop flavor and long enough that the chicken completely falls apart. It should be like a rich thin gravy thickness & it will get a little thicker once the dumplings are cooked in.
3. Turn the stove up to medium and bring the pot to a medium simmer. Make the dumplings. In a medium sized bowl add all of the dry ingredients and mix well. Then pour in the butter & milk. Stir until a somewhat wet dough forms. Using a spoon or small cookie scoop- quickly add the dumpling dough to the top of the soup/stew. Making sure to evenly spread the dumplings out so they cover the entire surface of the soup/stew. Cover with a lid immediately & set your timer for 20 minutes. Making sure not to open the lid during this time. After the 20 minutes your dumplings should be fully cooked through (if not- feel free to put the lid back on and give them a few more minutes.)
4. Serve it up! Store leftovers in the fridge for 4-5 days. Reheat it as you would any soup or stew & enjoy.

Notes

Can you make the dumplings ahead of time:

Kind of. :) You can premix the dry ingredients and have your milk/butter read to go if you would like. But I do not recommend mixing the wet and dry until you are ready to put the dumplings in the pot. Otherwise your biscuits will not be fluffy.

Can you

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @bakingangell on instagram and hashtag it # bakingangell