Instant Pot Chicken and Dumplings

This recipe for Instant Pot Chicken and Dumplings hits a home run in terms of flavor, comfort, and ease! Tender chicken and homemade dumplings are enveloped in a rich broth studded with carrots and potatoes. And because this recipe is prepared using the Instant Pot, this hearty Instant Pot Chicken Stew is quick enough to prepare for a weeknight dinner. 

This recipe for Chicken and Dumplings is near and dear to my heart. Not only is it absolutely delicious, but it is inspired by a recipe from my grandpa. I have shared many recipes from my Papa's kitchen, from his baked beans to his pot roast to his chicken pot pie. He was the king of comfort foods! And this recipe for chicken and dumplings is another winner!

This hearty, rich chicken stew is a lot like his chicken pot pie, just in soup form. The broth is richly flavored, the chicken is tender, and the dumplings are perfection. It is stick-to-your-ribs comfort food that is absolutely delicious.

I took his recipe for Chicken and Dumplings and adapted it for the Instant Pot. By using a few shortcuts, this soup is ready in just over 30 minutes. And that is still with HOMEMADE DUMPLINGS! Instant Pot Chicken and Dumplings is the perfect way to enjoy comfort food, even on busy weeknights.

Notes On Ingredients

The key to making flavorful Chicken and Dumplings in a short amount of time is taking a few shortcuts by using chicken breast or chicken thighs in place of simmering a whole chicken and flavoring the stew well. This recipe adds flavor in all the right places to produce one insanely delicious chicken soup.

• Chicken: Use either boneless, skinless chicken breasts or chicken thighs cubed into 1-inch pieces.
• White Wine: To add an incredible depth of flavor to the chicken stew, I add a bit of dry white wine. You want to use a good quality dry wine such as a Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, or Riesling. If you would rather not cook with alcohol, simply use additional chicken stock in place of the wine.
• Chicken Stock: Use low-sodium store-bought or homemade chicken stock, bone broth, or broth.
• Seasoned Salt: My papa always used seasoned salt for a little bit of oomph to the chicken and dumplings. I always keep homemade seasoned salt on hand, but if you don't have it on hand, feel free to replace it with a mixture of ½ teaspoon of kosher salt, and ¼ teaspoon each of garlic powder, onion powder, and paprika.
• Fresh Thyme: If you don't have fresh thyme, dried thyme leaves, not ground thyme, will work to flavor the soup.
• Heavy Cream: To finish the chicken stew with a rich, creamy finish, I recommend adding in heavy cream, half and half, or whole milk. I have even used skim milk in a bind, and while not as rich tasting, it was still delicious.
• Homemade Dumplings: To make dumplings, you need flour, baking powder, milk, and butter. While you certainly can use canned refrigerated biscuits, homemade dumplings are so easy to make and they taste so much better.

How to Make Instant Pot Chicken and Dumplings

There may look like there are a lot of steps for this recipe, but I promise this recipe is easy and fast enough for even a weeknight dinner!

Step One: Saute Chicken

• Hit the button labeled saute, add in a bit of oil, and let your pressure cooker warm up for a minute or two.
• Once the oil is heated, add in the cubed chicken along with the onions, celery, and carrots. You want to saute the onions, celery, and chicken just until the onions have softened and the chicken has begun to brown.
• Once the chicken is looking slightly browned, add in the garlic and saute for 30 seconds, just to toast it slightly. Be cautious to not burn the garlic, as burnt garlic can ruin a dish quickly.

Step Two: Deglaze the Inner Pot

It is crucial to deglaze the pan any time you use the saute function. This is the process of using liquid to scrape up the browned bits that may be on the bottom of the inner pot and will help to prevent a burn notice from occurring. For this recipe, I use white wine to add flavor to the chicken soup, but you can certainly replace the wine with additional chicken stock.

• Pour the wine/stock into the inner pot and use a wooden spoon or spatula to scrape the bottom of the inner pot.
• Let the wine simmer for a minute or two, allowing the liquid to reduce, and let the alcohol cook off. Then hit cancel to turn the saute function off.

Step Three: Add Ingredients for Chicken Stew

• Proceed with the recipe by adding in stock, potatoes, carrots, thyme, bay leaves, and salt and pepper. Stir to evenly combine the ingredients.

Step Four: Make Dumplings

At this point, you want to make the dumplings OR cut up refrigerated biscuit dough into 1-inch cubes. But let me remind you again, homemade dumplings are going to be superior in flavor and texture and take only minutes to make.

• To make homemade dumplings, combine together flour, salt, and baking powder together in a medium mixing bowl, whisking well to incorporate.
• Make a well in the middle of the mixture and pour in the milk and melted butter. Stir with a wooden spoon or spatula until the mixture just comes together.

Step Five: Add Dumplings

Before pressure cooking, you want to add your dumplings or biscuit dough to the soup. The homemade dumpling dough is a bit sticky, so I find this is easiest to do using a mini cookie scoop, or two soup spoons.

• Drop the homemade dumpling dough into the soup.
• Once all the dumplings have been portioned out into the soup, gently submerge the dumplings into the liquid, by gently pushing them down, just to cover, into the chicken broth mixture.

Step Six: Pressure Cook

This chicken stew cooks FAST--in just five minutes. But it is crucial to allow for pressure to release naturally once the pressure cooking is complete. This simply means to leave your instant pot alone (the keep warm can be on) for at least 15 minutes. This will ensure the chicken and dumplings stay tender AND that you won't have a huge mess to clean up by forcing a quick release which will cause hot liquid to spew all over your kitchen.

• Place the lid on the instant pot, be sure the vent knob is pointed towards sealed, and set to cook on HIGH PRESSURE for 5 minutes. Hit manual or pressure cook and then use the +/- buttons to adjust the time to read 5.
• Once the cooking time has elapsed let the pressure release naturally for at least 15 minutes.

Step Seven: Finish Chicken Stew

To help thicken up the chicken and dumplings and finish the stew with a rich, luxurious finish, I love to add heavy cream. I also add frozen peas for a pop of fresh flavor. Both are completely optional, but do help to make this the best chicken and dumplings!

• Once 15 minutes have passed since the cooking time was completed, you can do a quick release of any remaining pressure if needed Be sure to stand away from the vent knob as pressure is released to protect yourself from burns.
• Open the Instant Pot and turn back to saute by hitting cancel and then hitting saute. Add in the cream and peas and stir until the peas are just warmed through.

Step Eight: Serve

At this point, the chicken and dumplings are ready to be served and enjoyed.

More Instant Pot Soup Recipes

Looking for more Instant Pot Soup Recipes? You will love Instant Pot Stuffed Pepper Soup, Instant Pot Minestrone Soup, or one of the following soup recipes.

• Instant Pot French Onion Soup
• Instant Pot Chicken Noodle Soup
• Instant Pot Butternut Squash Soup
• Instant Pot Lentil Soup
• Instant Pot Potato Soup
• Instant Pot Beef and Barley Soup

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I hope you enjoy a bowl or two of this Instant Pot Chicken and Dumplings and be sure to leave a comment or review below if you gave this recipe a try.

This recipe was originally published in 2020 but updated in 2022 with new photos and a video.