01 Dec Quick and Easy Turkey and Dumplings from Scratch

Every year we enjoy making Turkey for Thanksgiving. Now, we don’t always have a large get-together to warrant a full turkey, but we love it and always use the left overs for broth, meals, to freeze or for new dishes. Turkey and dumplings is one of our favorites and it packs so much flavor that it truly is addicting. Best part is I never have to go to the store for any of these ingredients since they are usually part of our staples and they’re whole foods (none of that canned stuff). This can also very easily be made with left over chicken or a rotisserie chicken you pick up from the store, or cook up your favorite cut of chicken and toss it in. Who knew it was so easy to make from scratch?!

I enjoy the traditional chicken and dumplings more so than chicken pot pie. Are they technically the same thing just reimagined? I don’t know but for me, the dumplings are some ooey gooey goodness drowning in a creamy bath that’s just so warming on these cold days. Because I prefer the creaminess of a soup it was only obvious that we would use some of our leftover turkey to make this warm family meal on the last few lazy days of Thanksgiving and Fall break. Now, I will say my husband does love a good turkey pot pie so he decided to make one on his own with some of the leftover turkey and it was also delish!

What I love about this recipe is I don’t have to realy “cook” anything cause it’s all stuff I have. Yay!
Once we’ve had our turkey dinner we generally strip that baby of all the yummy meat and put the bones in the slow cooker to make some delicious broth. Since I’ve already been making broth it’s super easy for me to just grab it out of the fridge and use in this recipe for a quick meal. You of course can purchase your own but if you want to attempt the broth it’s great to freeze and keep on hand. It just tastes so much better and then you’ll always have some on hand to add a little bit of flavor to your other favorite dishes. Bonus is you get all the amazing benefits of quality homemade bone broths that your body will love.

There’s still plenty of months left of chilly weather coming up so it’s a perfect time to try this recipe out.

Print

Quick and Easy Turkey and Dumplings from Scratch

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Servings 8 cups

Ingredients

• 4 cups turkey broth (or chicken broth) (or chicken broth)
• 1 cup water
• 2 Tbsp salted butter (I use Kerrygold but unsalted is okay too)
• 2 tsp poultry seasoning
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp dried parsley
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 2 1/2 - 3 cups turkey leftovers
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 cups milk (if using whole milk you could do 2 cups milk and add a cup of water for desired thickness)
• 1 bag frozen peas and carrots about 2 cups

Dumplings

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1 cup milk

Instructions

1. In a heavy bottomed Dutch oven or large wide pot, over medium heat, add turkey broth, water, butter and all seasonings (poultry seasoning, onion powder, garlic powder, sea salt, parsley, basil, and pepper). Cover and bring to a boil.

2. Meanwhile, chop turkey into bite sized pieces. Add to the pot. Stir to combine and cover.

3. In a medium bowl combine flour and milk and whisk together to combine well. (Alternatively, you can also use a sealable container such as a large mason jar to shake it up.) This creates a smooth flour mixture for thickening your sauce called a slurry. Slowly pour the slurry into the pot, stirring constantly. Add frozen vegetables and cover.

4. While that’s cooking, combine dumpling ingredients in a medium bowl. Mix well with a fork. You can use your hands if you don’t mind getting messy like me. Remove cover from the soup pot and stir well.

5. Scoop dumpling batter into small tablespoon sizes and drop dumplings into the soup one tablespoon at a time. I just make little clusters with my hands and drop them in, but you can use a 1 tablespoon scoop to make it even easier. Reduce heat to simmer, cover and cook until soup is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 10 minutes.

I originally modified my recipe from Donna Elick’s found here.