Crockpot Chicken and Dumplings

Ever have one of those days where you didn't want to go to the grocery store, but wanted a home cooked meal? That's me. Everyday. I would love to be one of the women that has meals planned out for weeks in advance with all the necessary ingredients at hand, but sadly I am not. It's not for lack of trying though! I have a picture frame turned into weekly planner that I found via pinterest (here) but only use it when I'm feeling particularly productive. Anyway, with my husband working in the morning and myself working in the afternoon/evening, dinner primarily falls upon Jason. While I love coming home to a meal cooked by him, he has a lot on his plate (no pun intended!) between work, school and the girls. This is where my new favorite kitchen appliance comes into play...

THE CROCKPOT!!

I can throw everything in around 11 am and it does the rest of the work. He can eat with the girls at dinner time and then I can eat when I get home around 8 pm. It's awesome. It became even MORE awesome when I found a recipe for chicken 'n dumplings (Jason's favorite) that can be made in the crockpot. It's extremely easy.. here's what ya need: 

Ingredients:

Fresh or frozen chicken breasts - I use 1-2 pounds depending on if I am cooking for 2 or 4.

Cream of Chicken condensed soup - 1 can

Cream of Mushroom condensed soup - 1 can

Chicken Stock 

Homestyle or Buttermilk Buscuits - 1 tube

Peas or other veggies

Salt

Pepper

Basil

Poultry Seasoning

*Note* - I rarely ever measure my seasonings or spices. I usually just eyeball it. I usually do like, 4 turns of the sea salt shaker, 5 or 6 of the pepper, 5 shakes of the basil and 5 shakes of the poultry seasoning. Extremely accurate, I know!

Combine everything in the crockpot except for the biscuits and the veggies. I tend to add more or less chicken stock/broth depending on how much chicken I use. I prefer to have the chicken pretty much covered with the soup and broth. At this point, is it better to have more liquid than not enough for when we add the biscuits. Set the crockpot on low, and let it cook for about 5-6 hours.

About an hour before you want to eat, tear the biscuits into smaller pieces and roll into balls. Drop them into the crockpot and make sure they are covered with the liquid. Add any vegetables you want to add too. Then, and this is CRUCIAL, turn the crockpot onto HIGH. 

This is what it looks like right after you add the dough. The dumplings start to swell and look like bloated balls of doughy goodness.

This is the final product when it is in the crockpot. It turned out that I had added a little too much liquid in the beginning, but I would rather have it that way because the dumplings soak up A LOT of the broth. 

There is a lot of room to tweak this recipe into what you or your family likes. I would have taken a real after picture with it on a plate, but I forgot as I was eating and we devoured the whole dish. Yes, it is that good.

Hope you enjoy! Happy cooking!

Sarah

An Outlet of Sorts

Hi everyone! I am new to this whole blogging thing, but DESPERATELY needed a way to channel my thoughts and a notebook just wasn't going to cut it. I will be honest, a lot of my ideas and recipes are inspired by Pinterest like many other people's, but most of the time, I try to put my own spin on it. I am a newlywed and not-so-evil stepmother to 2 girls (9 & 11) so there will be loads of picky-eater recipes, fun DIY and ways to be thrifty. We are currently renting our duplex so there won't be many extreme makeovers yet (I WISH!) but hopefully one day soon we will have a house so I can really make good of all the pins I find everyday. I already have a couple posts of tried and true crockpot recipes to share with y'all soon.

Have a happy Wednesday!
Sarah