Gluten Free Chicken and Dumplings Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How to thicken chicken and dumplings without flour? ›

Place cornstarch and cold water or milk in mason jar. Shake until well combined and then add to boiling chicken and dumplings to thicken.

When cooking the dumplings, keep the pot at a gentle simmer. An aggressive simmer or boiling will break them apart. Keep the heat low and keep your pot covered so that they steam.

If you want to thicken the soup base on your chicken and dumplings, you'll need to do it BEFORE you add in your dumplings. Take about 1/3 cup of the liquids and place it into a bowl. Whisk 2 teaspoons of cornstarch into this liquid. Once the mixture is smooth, pour it back into the soup pot and stir in.

Use flour as a thickening agent by making a roux, a mixture of equal parts butter and flour. First, melt the butter over medium-low heat, then when the butter is bubbling, add in the flour. Cook the mixture until it's light brown. Whisk the hot liquid into the roux, use two ounces of roux for every cup of liquid.

If you don't have broth on hand and want a little more flavor than just plain water, try subbing in a cup of water plus a tablespoon of butter for every cup of chicken broth.

Instead of steaming these dumplings in water, we simmer them in a vinegary cornstarch and flour slurry that creates a lacy, crunchy golden crust as the water evaporates and the dumplings brown.

Set a timer for 15 minutes, don't lift the lid during this time, the dumplings need to steam. Open the lid and insert a toothpick into the middle of a dumpling to check for doneness. If it comes out clean, it's ready. If not, cover and simmer for a few more minutes.

Overworking the mixture, thus having heavy dumplings is a common mistake people make. Dumplings need very gentle handling, so mix only until the ingredients are just combined, and if your recipe involves rolling them out with extra flour, avoid using too much.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook dumplings in batches of about eight until they are cooked through, 3 to 4 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the dumplings to a serving platter. Serve warm with the dipping sauce.

It's important to note that cornstarch has twice the thickening power of flour. If you need to substitute cornstarch to thicken liquid in a recipe that calls for ¼ cup (four tablespoons) flour, you only need two tablespoons cornstarch.

How do you make chicken and dumplings not watery? ›

You can make a slurry out of flour and cold water, add to the chicken mixture and cook until thickened (you need to cook this to cook the raw taste out of the flour). Alternately, you can make a slurry of cornstarch and cold water and add to the chicken gravy.

The dumplings will be completely cooked and ready when they float on the surface of the boiling water.

Just add in some extra chicken broth or warm water and let the mixture simmer slowly. If you're having the opposite problem and your soup is too thin, that can also be remedied. Mix some flour with water to make a slurry and stir it into the broth.

They're sometimes labeled “instant mashed potatoes” because they dissolve into liquid almost immediately. “They thicken the broth the way a roux would, but they're gluten-free and take way less time and fewer ingredients,” Weinberger explains.

One of the most common substitutes for cornstarch is another pantry staple: plain all-purpose flour. But beware: Cornstarch has twice the thickening power of all-purpose flour, which means you'll need twice as much: For every 1 tablespoon of cornstarch, use 2 tablespoons of flour.

Cornstarch can be subbed in for wheat flour at a 1:2 ratio. Because it's a durable thickener, you only need half the amount of cornstarch to create the same effect. Also, adding cornstarch to a gluten free recipe is a great way to add softness and texture to baked goods while keeping them grain free!

Egg yolks, arrowroot, tomato paste or butter can thicken sauce in place of flour or cornstarch.