Chicken Stew with Buttermilk Dumplings
A favorite meal here on the farm, Kate’s Chicken Stew with Buttermilk Dumplings never lasts long after a long day working in the barns. Comforting, filling, and perfect for a large family meal, it’s been a go-to recipe in our family for generations.
The homemade flavor and creaminess of Kate’s Unsalted Butter makes a rich stew broth while Kate’s old-fashioned Buttermilk keeps the dumplings fluffy and happy. Keep it simple by using a rotisserie chicken and your favorite market-bought chicken broth, and you can have this family-loved meal on the table in just over an hour.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup Kate’s Unsalted Butter
- 1 cup chopped celery, roughly 3 stocks
- 1 cup diced onion
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 tbsp fresh thyme or 1 tsp dried
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 8 cups chicken broth (homemade or store-bought)
- 2 tsp poultry seasoning
- 2 cups diced carrots
- 2 cups diced russet potato, see notes
- 2 cups cooked chicken (leftover rotisserie works great)
- 1 cup frozen peas
- salt and pepper to taste
For the Dumplings
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 4 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 large eggs, room temperature, see notes*
- 1/2 cup Kate’s Buttermilk
- 1/4 cup Kate’s Unsalted Butter, melted
Instructions
To make the stew:
- In a large Dutch oven or pot, melt butter and add the celery and onions. On low heat, sauté until the onions become translucent, about 5 minutes.
- Add garlic and thyme and sauté 1 minute longer.
- Stirring constantly, sprinkle flour over the vegetables and cook for 2 minutes.
- Slowly add in the chicken broth stirring constantly.
- Add the poultry seasoning, carrots, and potatoes.
- Place lid on top, cook on medium heat until carrots and potatoes are slightly tender but not fully cooked, about 10-15 minutes.
- Taste for seasonings. Add salt and pepper as needed.
- Add cooked chicken and frozen peas.
- Bring the stew back to a slow boil and make the dumplings.
To make dumplings:
- Measure and then sift flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt into a medium-sized bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the eggs, buttermilk, and butter. The buttermilk will curdle the egg which resembles scrambled eggs. This is totally fine. Pour the buttermilk mixture into the flour mixture, stirring gently just until all the dry ingredients are wet. Do not over-mix. The batter will be stiff.
- Once the stew is at a slow boil, drop the dumpling mixture into the stew by one heaping tablespoonful at a time. We like to use a medium-size cookie scoop for this. You ended up with a more uniform size dumpling.
- Lower heat to a simmer, place the lid on top, and simmer the stew for 20 min. without removing the lid. This part is very important. Lifting the lid in the middle of cooking will produce a sticky, gluey dumpling.
- Once the 20 minutes are up, the stew is ready to enjoy.
Notes
To quickly bring eggs to room temp, leaving eggs in their shells, place them in a bowl of warm tap water for about 10 mins. The eggs are ready when they no longer feel cold to the touch.
By using unsalted butter and low sodium broth, it makes it easier to control the salt amount.
Any potato will work in this recipe. We like to use a Russet or Idaho potato which is high in starch and helps thicken the stew.
