What to serve with chicken and dumplings

Chicken and dumplings are American loved comfort food, frequently enjoyed on colder or rainy days. It is also recognised as being a French-Canadian meal, that had begun its popularity during the American Great Depression. It is a delightful dish consisting of a chicken that had been cooked in water, resulting in a chicken broth that would have been used to cook dumplings.

Dumplings are a mixture of flour, fat, and liquid such as water, milk, buttermilk, or chicken stock. The dumplings can be rolled out flat or formed into balls. Sometimes you can choose to add finely chopped vegetables to the broth, such as carrots and celery. 

There are a variety of choices on what to serve with chicken and dumplings, from a simple bowl of finely chopped greens that had been delicately fried in oil, to a delicious plate of red lobster cakes/biscuits. They are a wonderful crispy golden brown on the outside, with a flaky surface followed by light and fluffy on the inside.

Table of Contents

• What Do You Eat with Chicken and Dumplings?
• What Side Dishes go with Chicken and Dumplings?
• What to Serve with Chicken and Dumplings?
  • Chicken and Dumplings Menu
  • What to Have with Chicken and Dumplings?
  • Perfect Side Dish for Chicken and Dumplings
• Finally
• FAQs

What Do You Eat with Chicken and Dumplings?

Some people may prefer to eat chicken and dumplings as a stand-alone meal. Although chicken and dumplings contain a generous amount of protein, you could opt for a variety of healthier side dishes to go with your main meal of chicken and dumplings, these may consist of the following:

Green salad, with its light and tender consistency, adds crispiness to the dish, which will prevent you from overwhelming yourself with double the heaviness of your meal.

Cornbread serves as a mildly gentle substitute to the main meal, the tenderness of the cornbread will help emphasize the aromatic flavours of the soup.

You could choose coleslaw, a bowl of crispy green vegetables to effectively complement the rich flavour of chicken and dumplings.

Brussel sprouts – a cousin of asparagus – is typically considered a hard vegetable to prepare to eat. However, if you roast them within 20 to 40 minutes the slightly burnt vegetables will complement the richness of the original dish, meaning that the original bitter flavour found in the sprouts will inevitably be eliminated through this method.

What Side Dishes go with Chicken and Dumplings?

Chicken and dumplings are quite a plentiful meal, so choosing a light side dish preferably consisting of vegetables can bring an elaborate contrast of flavours to the meal. For instance, your choice could be sautéed green peas.

Start by cooking shallots in olive oil and butter, when they have turned light brown add chopped or minced garlic, let it simmer for 2 minutes. Add some frozen peas, and let it cook all the way through, then turn off the heat, add some parsley and toss. Your side dish of sautéed green peas is ready in much less time than it took you to prepare your main meal of chicken and dumplings!

If you would much rather opt for an extra sweeter end to the meal, you could attempt a side dish that will complement the comfort of the main meal, one of these suggestions are brownies à la mode. Serve the brownie warm and top it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Remaining with the belief that chicken and dumplings can be served with dessert, chocolate mousse is a rich velvety treat, that will provide a perfectly splendid ending to the creamy chicken and dumplings warming the inside of your belly. Using heavy cream, egg yolks, sugar, vanilla extract, and bittersweet chocolate, you can spin these ingredients to create a delicious dessert that will undoubtedly wow everyone at the table.

Fried apples are a super simple sweet side dish, with the perfect amount of crispiness to compliment your meal. To make the perfect batch of fried apples begin melting butter in a pan and add some sliced apples, top with sugar, you can choose from brown or white, and then some cinnamon. You can finish this off with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream.

What to Serve with Chicken and Dumplings?

You can experiment with what you crave alongside your perfectly hearty meal of chicken and dumplings. Jalapeno cheddar cornbread can be dipped in the broth, or you can opt for some roasted red cabbage with goats’ cheese and toasted walnuts drizzled with balsamic vinegar and add some cheese if you’re feeling excessively experimental. Chicken and dumplings are creamy and tender, which is why you may wish to make a side dish that is full of texture, i.e., arugula salad.

Here are some more examples of what you could choose to serve with chicken and dumplings:

Mashed Potatoes: This classic dish is perfect for satisfying any craving you may have when it comes to comfort food. All you need to do is grab a mixing bowl, add some milk or cheese, butter, salt and pepper. The key to perfect mashed potatoes is allowing the potatoes to become nice and tender in the boiling water before mashing them into their creamy consistency, once the potatoes have been mashed, add them to the mixture in the bowl and get mixing!

Buttered Carrots: Boil your carrots in water until they are tender, for some added deliciousness sprinkle some herbs like thyme or rosemary to get that perfectly delicious aroma.

Fried Onion Rings: Crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside bursting with a lightly sweet flavour, perfect in complimenting your main meal of chicken and dumplings. The key to making them is to let your onions sit in cold water for at least 30 minutes before frying. You want to avoid them burning as that will completely spoil their taste.

Chicken and Dumplings Menu

There are many types of dishes to add to a menu that serves chicken and dumplings. You may choose to diversify your menu.

Green side dishes to be served with chicken and dumplings:

• Green beans
• Brussel sprouts
• Fresh green salad
• Steamed vegetables

Fruit side dishes to serve with chicken and dumplings:

• Grape salad
• Fried apples

Dessert side dishes to serve with chicken and dumplings:

• Chocolate mousse
• Brownies à la mode
• Banana pudding
• Fruit salad

What to Have with Chicken and Dumplings?

Chicken and dumplings are soft and limp, you may opt for a side dish like fried potatoes, fried corn, fried okra, which can make the dish taste heavier. The common choice for what goes well with chicken and dumplings would be green beans, brussels sprouts, fresh green salad, steamed veggies, fried okra, cornbread, brownies à la mode, chocolate mousse, corn pudding, banana pudding, fruit salad.

Green Beans:

A French classic of lemon and garlic-infused green beans is an interesting way to add some greens to your meal, drizzled with lemon and tossed with a handful of crunchy toasted almonds.

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add the green beans, cover, and cook for 5 to 8 minutes, until they are tender, but still bright green and crispy.

• Drain the beans and set them aside while the beans are boiling, lightly toast the almond slices on medium-low heat for 8 to 10 minutes, carefully keeping an eye on them, so that they don’t burn.

• Melt some butter in a pan, season with salt and pepper and fry some garlic for 2 minutes.

• Turn off the heat and transfer the green beans to a serving dish.

• Squeeze lemon juice and toss in the toasted almonds.

Perfect Side Dish for Chicken and Dumplings

Dumplings are made from flour, fat, and liquid. You can choose to compliment the meal with some mashed potatoes, or if you prefer more of a contrast to your meal, you can make a side dish of crisp broccoli salad.

With cornbread to soak up the creamy bliss of the chicken broth, dumplings swimming in the bowl whilst you dip a mini cornbread loaf, the flavours seeping into the soft bread, it can make a delicious evening meal.

Brussel sprouts are wildly popular though these balls of high fibre are under-appreciated, packed with vitamins, antioxidants, and minerals, they are much more tolerable when steamed, sweetened, or roasted. Commonly drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper, or for added flavour, spray the sprouts with some lemon juice.

Fried green tomatoes, add a slightly tangy and sour flavour to the meal, the contrast adding texture to the chicken and dumplings.

Finally

Creamy comforting chicken and dumplings is a delicious feel-good meal that can be wonderful on its own, but even better when served with a range of side dishes. Whether you choose cornbread, nutritious vegetables, fried green tomatoes, red lobster cakes, or crave a sweeter end to the meal, there is no limit to what you could serve as a side dish to chicken and dumplings. There are many ways to prepare the side dishes to compliment your main meal of chicken and dumplings, bearing in mind that not every recipe is perfect unless you insert a drizzle of your creativity to it!

FAQs