This recipe for Instant Pot Chicken and Dumplings hits a home run in terms of flavor, comfort, and ease!
This Instant Pot Chicken Recipe is made with tender chicken and homemade dumplings that 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 Instant Pot 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!
I took my Papa's recipe for Chicken and Dumplings and adapted it to become an Instant Pot Recipe that is ready in just over 30 minutes.
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.
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, instant pot 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
Need more inspiration for planning meals that your family will love? Sign up for my FREE Meal Plans and each week you will get a meal plan with a shopping list.
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.

Instant Pot Chicken and Dumplings
Ingredients
- ½ tablespoon olive oil
- 1 small onion minced
- 2 stalks celery finely chopped
- 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, or thighs cubed in 1-inch pieces
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- ½ cup dry white wine optional
- 6 cups low-sodium chicken stock
- 3 large carrots peeled and cut into slices
- 3 russet potatoes peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes (about 3 loosely packed cups)
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1 teaspoon seasoned salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 cup frozen peas
- ½ cup heavy cream or whole milk
Homemade Dumplings
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 3 tablespoons butter melted
- ¾ cup milk
Instructions
Homemade Dumplings
- In a medium mixing bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Make a well in the middle of the mixture and pour in the milk and melted butter. Stir with a wooden spoon until the mixture just comes together. Set aside to add to the chicken soup.
Chicken and Dumpling Soup
- Turn the Instant Pot on by hitting the SAUTE button. Add the oil to the inner pot and let it heat. Once heated, add onions, celery, and chicken to the inner pot and saute until the chicken is seared and the onions have softened, 4-5 minutes. Add the garlic and saute for another 30 seconds, just to toast the garlic.
- Add the wine (or ½ cup of the chicken broth if not using wine) to the inner pot and use a wooden spoon or spatula to scrape up any browned bits on the bottom of the inner pot. Let the wine cook off for 1-2 minutes and then hit CANCEL to turn off the saute function on the instant pot.
- Add the broth, carrots, potatoes, bay leaf, thyme, seasoned salt, and pepper to the inner pot and stir to evenly combine all the ingredients.
- Drop the homemade dumpling dough into the soup by about 1 tablespoon portion. 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.
- Place the lid on the Instant Pot and be sure the venting knob is sealed. Press "Pressure Cook" or "Manual" and set to cook on High Pressure for 5 minutes.
- Once the cooking time has elapsed, let the pressure release naturally for at least 15 minutes. Then carefully release any remaining pressure and open the lid of the instant pot.
- Hit “Cancel” and then “Saute.” Add in the heavy cream and peas and stir. While stirring, look for the bay leaf and thyme springs and remove them from the soup.
- Let the soup simmer for 3-5 minutes or until warmed through and slightly thickened.
- Serve immediately.
Equipment Needed
Notes
Nutrition
This recipe was originally published in 2020 but updated in 2022 with new photos and a video.
Laurie
This is my favorite instant pot chicken recipe, so I figured “Why not Turkey?” After day 2, turkey leftovers, especially dark meat, are a hard sell at my house, My vastly smaller quarantine table made it all the more challenging to use up the bird. To modify the chicken recipe, I used my home made turkey stock, which was rich and flavorful after roasting my bird using your brine recipe. I used 2 cups diced dark meat in the soup. One other change - the white wine was all gone, but I didn’t miss it at all. And you’re right about the home made dumplings - much tenderer than the canned biscuit dough, and the delicate flavor complimented the soup better. A winner!
Kristen Chidsey
What a wonderful idea to use turkey instead Laurie! So glad you enjoyed!
Karla Kinsky
Have you tried this with a gluten free flour? Wondering what one would work best.
Kristen Chidsey
I have used Bob's Mill 1:1 gfree flour blend with success--not for this recipe but for my stove-top version years ago. I believe it should work well for you.
Hannah
Delicious! I'm so glad I tried your recipe making it in the instapot. I usually make these on the stovetop. I skipped the potatoes and wine (didn't have any in the house) so I added extra chicken stock. My husband really loved it. Thanks Kristen.
Kristen Chidsey
Hi Hannah! Thanks for taking the time to leave a review! I am so glad you enjoyed the soup 🙂
Karena
Hello there. Can this dish be frozen for later once cooked?
Kristen Chidsey
Hi Karena, technically yes, but I do not care for the consistency of the potatoes or dumplings after defrosted and the milk can separate. So while it is safe to eat (and still pretty good), it is not the best dish to freeze.
Janel
So good & thanks for having the recipes for the other ingredients (stock, dumplings) as well! Best soup I’ve eaten!
Kristen Chidsey
I am so glad you enjoyed Janel!
Lynne
Wow! Made this tonight, ultimate comfort food, and the dumplings were the best fluffiest morsels I've ever made. Thanks for the recipe, it's a keeper in this house!
Kristen Chidsey
I am so glad you enjoyed Lynne.
Amy
You never cease to amaze.. literally every recipe has turned out amazing. My family gets excited to try the next new recipe you share. Thanks so much
Kristen Chidsey
You just made my day Amy! Thank you so much for your kind words. I want nothing more than to provide recipes people enjoy--so glad to hear mission accomplished with your family 💗
Re
Delicious!!! Easy to make. This recipe is a keeper. Thank you!!!
Kristen Chidsey
I am so glad you enjoyed Re!
Kathy
I loved the flavor of this. Due to some dietary restrictions, I did not make the dumplings, but added leftover baked lentils when I added the peas and thickened it with tapioca flour. So, I guess it was a form of chicken soup - but it was wonderful!
Kristen Chidsey
Oh I am so glad you were able to enjoy with modifications! I love that! Thanks for sharing Kathy!
Jessica Formicola
My family loves chicken and dumplings, and this is by far the best recipe we've ever tried! Thanks so much for sharing!
Kristen Chidsey
I am so so glad to hear that Jessica! Thanks for letting me know!
Renee Goerger
You can beat quick-cooking comfort food. This is delicious!
Kristen Chidsey
I am so glad you enjoyed Renee!