Comforting Chicken & Dumpling Casserole

This post may contain affiliate links.  See my disclosure for more information.

Jump to recipe

This baked casserole has the same comforting flavors of chicken and dumplings, but it’s way easier. Yum! Perfect for a chilly day.

Are you looking for comfort food?  Warm.  Soothing.  Even better if it’s super simple, right?

This baked casserole has the flavor of a more traditional chicken and dumplings, but because it’s baked in the oven is much more hands off.  Leaving you time to prepare other things or read a book to your kids.

I have a stove top chicken and dumpling recipe that is pretty simple.  It produces the light, doughy dumplings I love.  It is a lot more soup-like.  (Ahhh, soup.  One of the best parts of chilly weather, isn’t it?)  But having this simple recipe is perfect for when I want to make something comforting, and I don’t want to babysit it.

Chicken and Dumpling Casserole

I’m making this today with chicken that I roasted and stashed in the freezer.  But I’ve made it with both rotisserie chicken and home canned chicken meat, too with great success.  (Yeah, I tried my hand at using my pressure cooker for the first time and canned some chicken breast.  I’ll tell you about it sometime).

I changed the original recipe in two small ways. First, by adding some seasonings, primarily thyme. Chicken casseroles (specifically things like pot pie, chicken and noodles, or chicken and dumplings) require thyme in my world.  Mmmm, comfort.

And secondly, I start with already cooked chicken.  (If I’m taking the time to cook raw chicken for dinner, it’s not going to be for a casserole.)

In fact, I like to keep cooked, shredded chicken in my freezer for recipes exactly like this! Just me?

Simple Steps

Start with melting some butter (nothing bad ever came from that).  You could melt it and pour it into your baking dish, but I put the butter directly in the dish and then place it in the pre-heating oven to melt.

While the butter is melting, take the time to chop your chicken and mix a few things together.  Some dry ingredients and milk get whisked in a bowl.

After the butter is melted, lay the chicken over the top of it and pour the milk mixture over the top.  No stirring.

In the same bowl, (just give it a rinse) mix together chicken stock with some cream of chicken soup.  Whisk it until it’s smooth.

Then pour it gently over the top of the milk mixture.  Again, no stirring!

Bake it up until it’s slightly browned and bubbly around the edges.  Then serve! 

We ate ours in bowls, since it was all we were having for lunch. 

For dinner, I would probably serve it on a plate with a vegetable, like green beans, and maybe some one-hour bread or breadsticks.

 

Tastes like home

 

 

**Note**  My estimation is that this dish comfortably feeds 3 hungry adults, or 2 adults and 2 kids.  If you are serving more (or like leftovers), make two.  I’ve tried doubling the recipe in one pan.  While it works, it’s a bit more soupy and you lose some of the ‘dumpling-ness’ of it.