You'll be glad you tossed this Chicken and Dumplings recipe into the slow cooker!

Winter is not the only time to break out your slow cooker! Summer is an amazing time to toss something together in the morning, so dinner is ready in the evening and you can enjoy the warmer weather and the additional daylight. This Chicken and Dumplings recipe is also a perfect way to use the produce in your freezer!

My family gobbles this dish up whenever I make it. Plus, I love that I just dump the ingredients in at once, turn the slow cooker on, and walk away. When I return home from work at the end of the day, my house smells glorious and dinner is 90% done. I crank my slow cooker up to high and begin to toss together the simple ingredients to make the tasty dumplings. The dumplings cook while the kids get their shoes off, backpacks unpacked, lunch boxes emptied and hands washed for dinner.

And if you read my Freezing Produce for Fall post, you may have caught on that I don't actually measure my produce before tossing it into my slow cooker. Nope, I just bang it on the table to break it apart and if the bag is full, I put in about half the bag to equal 1 cup. But if you really like carrots, put in the entire bag. The same goes for the celery and onions. More won't hurt! I did provide measurements for those who don't feel comfortable guessing or prefer to use fresh vegetables.

Yield: 8-10

Chicken and Dumplings

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You'll be glad you tossed this Chicken and Dumplings recipe into the slow cooker!

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 4 hours

Total Time 4 hours 10 minutes

Ingredients

• 4-6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, trimmed of fat if desired
• 1 cup chopped carrots
• ½ cup chopped celery
• ½ cup chopped onion
• 1 box, 32 ounces, chicken broth
• 1 cup water
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon pepper
• 1 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ cup milk

Instructions

Place your chicken into the slow cooker.

Add carrots, celery, onion, chicken broth, water, spices, salt and pepper and stir.

Heat on low, 6-8 hours or High 4-6 hours.

Stir with a fork to break apart the chicken thighs, almost shredding them.

If heating on low, increase heat to high while you make dumplings.

For Dumplings

1. Add flour, thyme and baking powder in a bowl and mix well.
2. Add milk and stir until moistened.
3. Drop dumplings into the slow cooker and heat for an additional 10-20 minutes or until cooked through. The time depends on the size of the dumplings you make. I usually make smaller ones, about a teaspoon.

And after you make this, you'll have time to make our:  3 ingredient peanut butter cookies or 2 ingredient cookie dough truffles for dessert!