Chicken and dumplings are one of those recipes that you kinda cringe when thinking about making it. At least that’s what I did the other day when The Kid asked me to make it for dinner. It takes some time to make since it’s almost like making chicken stew first and then boiling or baking biscuits. I’ve actually made low calorie chicken and dumplings before, so this wasn’t my first dumpling rodeo.
The first thing I did was look up my own recipe, but then it hit me. I bet I could somehow do this in the instant pot! I googled a few soup recipes to see just how long it would take for the pressure cooker version, and it turns out not long at all. FIVE minutes. Seriously?! So in keeping with my creative theme, I also tried to find other ways to cut down on the recipe time.
No longer is chicken and dumplings a process of making the stew part first and then adding biscuits to cook in the broth. Let’s roll them all into one short and simple step. I got creative and used a tube of crescent rolls that I had. Yep, no biscuit making skills needed. Just lay the roll flat and instead of rolling into a crescent, slice them into strips and drop them right in before cooking.
5 Minute Chicken and Dumplings 
- 16 oz grilled chicken breast, shredded or cubed
- 1/4 cup celery, sliced
- 3/4 cup carrots, sliced
- 3/4 cup peas, frozen or thawed
- 16 oz can chicken broth
- 1 cup water
- 2 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 8 oz tube crescent rolls
Slice the carrots and celery, and shred or cube your chicken breasts. Add all of the ingredients to your Instant Pot or pressure cooker except the crescent rolls. Open the tube of rolls, and slice them into 1/2 inch wide strips. Drop the strips into the chicken mixture and stir gently to combine.
Place the lid on and lock into place. Set cook at high pressure for 5 minutes. When it’s done, let the pressure come down for a minute or two and use the manual release to carefully release the pressure. Remove lid and stir. Add salt and pepper to taste if needed.
Makes 4 – 6 servings depending on size.
I already had grilled chicken breasts in the fridge so I used those, and just shredded them into bite sized pieces. You can also use rotisserie chicken or even pre-grilled chicken strips that you get in a bag. Don’t worry about being exact with the veggie measurements. I sliced and diced while eyeballing what looked good to me. I did measure but only because I had hopes that it would turn out and end up here.
As a guideline, it was one large stalk of celery and about 2 medium sized carrots. If yours are different sizes, don’t stress. You can use more or less peas, carrots and celery based on what you like. You can even leave one or two out completely or sub in something like green beans. It’s your chicken and dumplings so have fun with it.
Because of the ease and speed of this recipe and the dairy free cheese the other day, I vowed to crack out my instant pot so much more. I can’t believe I’ve only used it for basic things like hard boiled eggs, steamed rice, and the occasional rissotto. Yeah, that bad boy is going to be put to work after this.
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