Instant Pot Chicken and Dumplings

This Instant Pot Chicken and Dumplings recipe is an amazing Sunday dinner with a hearty chicken thigh filling and fluffy homemade dumplings on top. 

❤️ Why You’ll Love This Recipe: We’ve nailed the best way to make fluffy, light and airy dumplings to serve over a classic and creamy chicken stew. It’s a one-pot meal that’s a total family favorite all year long.

As pressure cooking experts, we’ve finally found the key to making an amazing from-scratch chicken and dumpling recipe in the Instant Pot.

These biscuits are made from scratch but you don’t need any baking skills to pull them together.

And the filling is packed with flavor and a luscious, creamy sauce. 

This is one of our favorite new Instant Pot chicken recipes. It’s a treat at our house, and makes a great dish for entertaining too! Serve as a one-pot meal or with Creamy Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes for a total comfort food dinner.

Before developing this recipe, I’d only ever made chicken and dumplings once as a newlywed. Those dumplings were gummy and I’ve avoided this dish ever since. But my son requested it, so it was time to try again. But the flavor was spot-on from the beginning, and after a few tweaks for the Instant Pot, the dumplings were turning out fluffy as well. 

Chicken Filling Ingredients

Here’s what you need for this fast chicken and dumplings recipe:

• Chicken thighs. Use boneless, skinless chicken thighs for the filling
• Vegetable oil and butter. This combination yields crisp, golden chicken and a rich, buttery sauce. 
• Aromatics. The flavor base of the chicken filling is made with onion, celery, carrots, and garlic. 
• White wine. Choose a dry white that you like the taste of. We used a mini bottle of Sutter Home Chardonnay for this recipe. If you want to make this alcohol-free, you can use extra broth. 
• Tomato paste. For added umami flavor. 
• Herbs. Use dried thyme, parsley and bay leaves to brighten up the chicken filling. 
• Frozen peas. I like petite peas. 
• Cream. This is optional but adds a luxurious texture to the sauce. My husband prefers the dish with the cream, but I like it better without. 

Dumpling Ingredients

To make the dumplings on top, you’ll need:

• Flour. Use all-purpose, unbleached flour. 
• Baking powder to lighten and leaven the dumplings
• Cream. You can replace this with milk. 
• Butter. Use unsalted to control the seasoning of your dumplings
• Parsley flakes. This is optional.

How to Make Chicken and Dumplings in an Instant Pot

✅ This easy recipe will work in any brand of electric pressure cooker, including the Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi, or Power Pressure Cooker XL.

Start by seasoning the chicken with salt and pepper all over. In a small bowl, combine the thyme, salt, pepper and parsley. 

Heat the pot with the Saute function, then use the oil to brown the chicken and the butter to sauté the vegetables. This combination is my favorite for building classic comfort-food flavors.

Add the wine and deglaze the bottom of the pot. (Or if you’re not using the wine, just use the chicken broth to deglaze the pot.) The important thing is to stir until all the browned bits are scraped off the bottom of the pot and into the cooking liquid to flavor your food. Then add the tomato paste and stir well until combined. 

Return the chicken to the pot, along with the bay leaves and spices. Prepare the dumpling dough and scoop it on top of the chicken in large balls. 

Lock the lid in place and cook at high pressure for 8 minutes. Release the pressure for 10 minutes, then finish with a quick pressure release. Remove the lid, then use a slotted spoon to transfer the dumpling to a plate. 

Shred the chicken with two forks and remove the bay leaves from the filling. If you like, add heavy cream to the filling in the pot. Stir in the shredded chicken, along with the frozen peas.

Return the dumplings to the top of the filling and use the Saute function to cook until the chicken is heated through and the dumplings are fully cooked. Enjoy!

Important Tips for Making Chicken and Dumplings

To shape the dumplings, I had the best luck scooping the batter with a cookie scoop onto a plate and then using my fingers to place the dumpling ball in the perfect place in the pressure cooking pot. 

This recipe makes a lot of dumplings, so go ahead and use a generously sized scoop. 

If you have more dumplings than you can fit on your chicken filling, you can bake them up and serve them on the side. I made mine in the toaster oven while the chicken and dumplings cooked in the Instant Pot. 

The most important thing when making the dumplings is to avoid over mixing. This is a great overview of why mixing the dough too much can cause them to become gummy and dense. 

Frequently Asked Questions about Instant Pot Chicken and Dumplings 

MORE Instant Pot Chicken Recipes

You’ll love these other easy chicken recipes made in a pressure cooker:

• Instant Pot / Pressure Cooker Chinese Lemon Chicken is a bright and tangy weeknight dinner that takes just one pot. 
• Instant Pot Honey Sesame Chicken is our go-to when we’re craving take-out. 
• Pressure Cooker Chicken Lazone is a creamy Italian dinner that’s delicious over pasta. 

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Instant Pot Chicken and Dumplings

Yield: 8 to 12

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 8 minutes

Additional Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 38 minutes

This Instant Pot Chicken and Dumplings recipe is pure comfort food in a fraction of the time it would take on the stovetop, topped with fluffy homemade dumplings.

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Ingredients

Filling

• 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, well trimmed (about 10-ish?)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 teaspoon dried minced thyme
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon pepper
• 1 tablespoon dried parsley
• 1 to 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, as needed
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup finely chopped onion
• 2 celery rib, sliced ¼ inch thick
• 2 carrots, sliced ¼ inch thick
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 3 cups chicken broth, plus extra as needed
• 2 teaspoons tomato paste
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1/4 cup heavy cream, optional

Dumplings

• 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1 tablespoon parsley flakes, if desired

Instructions

1. For the stew: Generously season the chicken with salt and pepper. Combine the thyme, salt, pepper, and parsley and set aside.
2. Select Saute and preheat the pressure cooking pot. Add the oil and half of the chicken thighs to the cooking pot. Do not crowd. Cook until nicely browned on one side (about 3 minutes). Transfer to a plate. If needed, add more oil and brown the remaining chicken thighs.
3. Add the butter, onion, carrots, and celery, and saute until tender, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute more.
4. Add the wine** to the cooking pot and scrape the bottom of the pan to ensure no browned bits remain. Add the chicken broth, tomato paste, and stir until well mixed. Add the bay leaves and the thyme mixture prepared previously. Return the chicken to the pot, along with any juices that may have accumulated.
5. Scoop the dumpling dough on top in heaping tablespoon-size portions. (I like to use a cookie scoop for this and drop the balls of dough into my hand before gently placing them into the liquid.)
6. Lock the lid in place. Select High Pressure and 8 minutes cook time.
7. When the cook time ends, allow the pressure to release naturally for 10 minutes, then finish with a quick pressure release. When the valve drops, carefully remove the lid.
8. Use a slotted spoon and remove the dumplings to a plate. Remove the chicken to a cutting board and shred. Set aside. Discard the bay leaves.
9. If using, add heavy cream and stir until combined. Return the shredded chicken to the pot. Add the frozen peas and stir. Place the dumplings on top and simmer until the chicken is heated through and dumplings are done in the middle.
10. Spoon into bowls.
    

Notes

**

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 383Total Fat: 23gSaturated Fat: 11gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 11gCholesterol: 137mgSodium: 909mgCarbohydrates: 21gFiber: 2gSugar: 3gProtein: 23g

Nutrition information is calculated by Nutritionix and may not always be accurate.

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