This is a definite family favorite and has become one of the most requested dishes among friends who come to dine with us! Light and delicious soaked whole grain dumplings (a.k.a. biscuits) top a rich and creamy sauce filled with shredded chicken (or turkey) and lots of veggies!
If you’re new to “soaking,” please check out “How to Soak Grains for Optimal Nutrition.”
Savory Chicken and Veggies with Dumplings
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cup organic whole spelt flour
- 1 cup organic kamut flour
- 1 cup plain organic kefir (or cultured buttermilk)
- 5 tbsp butter, melted
- 1 tbsp Kefir
- 1 tbsp aluminum-free baking powder
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1/4 tsp dried parsley
- 1/8 tsp freshly ground pepper
- 1/8 tsp garlic powder
- 3 tbsp butter, plus 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 cups carrots, chopped (about 5-6 small carrots)
- 2 cups organic potatoes, cut into bite-sized pieces (about 3 medium potatoes)
- 1 1/2 cups organic celery, chopped (about 3-4 stalks)
- 1 cup yellow onion, chopped (about ½ large onion)
- 1 cup fresh green beans, ends trimmed and cut in half
- 2 1/2 cups homemade chicken stock
- 1 1/2 tsp fresh organic sage, finely chopped
- 1 1/2 tsp fresh organic thyme (leaves only)
- 1 tbsp coarse sea salt
- 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 3 cups precooked, shredded organic chicken (or turkey)
- 1 cup plain almond milk (or raw whole milk)
Step One: Soak Dumplings
Step Two: Finish Dumplings
Step Three: Prepare the Chicken (or Turkey) Casserole
Instructions
- Add flours to a large ceramic (or glass) mixing bowl.
- Using a fork, blend in kefir and melted butter.
- Use your hands to completely combine the ingredients and form a dough ball. (Will resemble pizza dough.)
- Cover the bowl and place it in a warm area of your kitchen for 24 hours.
- After soaking time is complete, add remaining ingredients.
- Using your hands, knead the ingredients into the dough. Dough will be very thick and sticky (like pizza dough) and it will take a couple minutes of kneading to combine.
- Once combined, set dough aside to rise a bit while you prepare the casserole.
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Oil a 9”x13” baking dish with olive oil and set aside.
- Heat a very large sauté pan (or wok) over medium-high heat. Add butter and olive oil to the pan, along with the carrots, potatoes, celery, onion and green beans. Sauté veggies for about 3-4 minutes, until onion just starts to soften.
- Then add chicken stock and seasonings. Cover and simmer for about 5-6 minutes, until veggies just begin to soften. (Do not simmer too long or your veggies will become mushy during the baking process.)
- Turn off heat once simmering is completed.
- For a rich and creamy sauce, add the milk and two ladle-fulls of the simmered veggies to your blender or VitaMix. Blend until completely puréed and return the purée back to the pan with the veggie mixture and combine.
- Next, add the precooked, shredded chicken (or turkey) and combine well.
- Pour mixture into oiled 9x13-inch baking dish. Sprinkle top with a light dash of dried sage, dried thyme and garlic powder.
- Scoop dumpling dough by rounded tablespoons and slightly flatten; then place evenly across the top of the casserole. (Keep dumplings fairly small so they cook evenly. As a point of reference, the dough yields about 24 dumplings.)
- Bake for 15-18 minutes until dumplings are lightly browned and casserole is bubbly. Allow to cool 5 minutes before serving. Enjoy
Step One: Soak Dumplings
Step Two: Finish Dumplings
Step Three: Prepare the Chicken (or Turkey) Casserole
Hi, this looks delicious. I just wanted to tell you that you have a typo in this recipe – latel, instead of ladle. Thanks for posting so many great healthy meals & for all the info on a more healthy diet. It will take me some time to get used to making things so far ahead, but I hope I can hang in there and do it! We have a new baby and I have Crohn’s disease, which is very affected by diet. Take care! Ali
Hi, Ali! Thanks for your eagle eye. I truly appreciate you letting me know about the typo! Don’t feel alone – there are so many with Crohn’s UC and other GI-related health issues who have made HUGE progress and even achieved consistent relief of symptoms by changing their diets. Check out my “About” – as I’ve been blessed with healing from my chronic health issue, thanks to God and Him leading me to a real food lifestyle. Prayers and blessings are with you for a healthy pregnancy, baby and healing, Kelly 🙂
Hi! I want to make this but have never seen these flours – do you have any suggestions of what types of places sell them?
Love the website!! Last night we made your strawberry/banana sorbet, and it was WONDERFUL!!!!
Hi, Diana. You could certainly use whole wheat flour in place of the spelt and kamut. Hope you enjoy this! Thanks for taking time to leave a kind note! Lots of blessings, Kelly 🙂
Never mine – found them both on Azure Standard! Can’t wait to try it!!!!
awesome! I just love the blend of spelt and kamut together – they really create delicious baked goods! 🙂
Yes, I’m going to be putting in my first order at Azure standard this week, and those two (spelt, kamut) are both on the list! So excited about this! Love your site, by the way – I have made a ton of recipes on it and they’ve all been great. Let’s see…. coconut pancakes, strawberry shortcakes, pineapple chicken, among others – great!! 🙂
Awesome – you’ll love Azure! So happy to hear you’re enjoying the site! It’s a blessing to be able to serve wonderful families like yours! Thanks so much for taking the time to leave an encouraging note! Blessings to you, Kelly 🙂
I wasn’t aware some baking powders had aluminum as an ingredient. YIKES! Can you recommend an aluminum-free brand?
Hi, John. So funny that you happen to comment on this recipe tonight, as I am making this very recipe using some leftover turkey from Thanksgiving. 🙂 As far as your question … The old tried-n-true Rumford brand is aluminum free and is carried by most major markets. Here’s a link so you can check it out: http://www.clabbergirl.com/consumer/products/rumford/
Blessings, Kelly 🙂
I just came across your site recently and this is the first recipe I’ve tried. I had some left over pork I used and it was DELICIOUS! So often I am disappointed when I try new recipes, particularly if there’s been quite a bit of effort. I was afraid this one would disappoint, too, and it didn’t! After starting the recipe I realized I didn’t have sage so I ended up putting in 3 tbsp of Italian seasoning in place of the sage and thyme and it totally worked great! I was so very pleased with how tasty and delicious it is and so healthy. I’ve been wanting a healthy chicken pot pie and this is it! Thank you for sharing your love and passion with all of us and blessing us. Your directions were thorough and easy to follow. Well done!!! I have two small sons as well and I’m excited to try more deliciousness from your site!
Thank you so much, Stephanie, for taking the time to share and leave such sweet words of encouragement. I am so happy this recipe blessed you and your precious family! I look forward to hearing back from you soon! Lots of blessings, Kelly 🙂
I absolutely LOVE your blog!!! You are such a blessing with your sweet spirit. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and expertise with us! My husband is gluten intolerant, and I’m wondering if you think that your almond flour biscuits would work as the dumplings on this? I notice that you use spelt a lot. I really miss spelt and kamut. One of our favorites was a soaked spelt buttermilk biscuit recipe that I made quite often. It’s been a few years since I’ve made it because of the food intolerances (my husband is also allergic to dairy, as well as one of our sons). I appreciate that you include some GF and DF options when you can 🙂
Hi, Joy! So glad you’re finding this site helpful to you! And it’s so funny that you mention this because I’ve been thinking about trying my almond flour biscuit recipe in this dish, but haven’t gotten around to it yet. So if you do sub with them, please let me know the result. And yes, prior to going gluten-free about a year ago, I did create a lot of recipes using spelt and kamut. But like your hubby, I’ve had to go GF, thus the reason you see many more GF recipes and of course, you will continue to see even more since this is the primary way I cook. Although I do still make many of the gluten based recipes for my family since they are not GF like me. I also enjoy using coconut milk and will continue to provide as many DF recipes (or suggestions for subbing for the dairy) as possible. Thanks for your kind words! Lots of blessings, Kelly