These keto chicken and dumplings are just as good as traditional chicken and dumplings, without all the extra carbs! This recipe is total comfort food, and it's they're ready in under an hour in one skillet.
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This keto dumplings recipe is built off some low carb and gluten free pantry staples. It's absolutely delicious, and a major comfort food win! If you're craving one of your favorite meals you used to eat before going low carb, this is it.
Feel free to skip to the recipe card if you're ready to get right into it. We do cover common questions, tips, and tricks in the body of this post to keep reading if you're wondering something!
Ingredients:
For the soup or gravy:
- Chicken Breasts
- Olive Oil
- Kosher Salt, Divided
- Black Pepper
- Unsalted Butter
- Yellow Onion, diced
- Stalk Celery, diced
- Carrot, peeled and diced
- Garlic, minced
- Lemon, juice and zest of (optional)
- Italian Seasoning
- Xanthan Gum
- Fresh Parsley, minced (optional)
- Chicken Broth
- Heavy Cream, optional (can sub more chicken stock)
For the dumplings:
- Blanched Almond Flour
- Unflavored Whey Protein Isolate
- Baking Powder
- Xanthan Gum
- Italian Seasoning
- Kosher Salt
- Black Pepper
- Garlic Powder
- Onion Powder
- Unsalted Butter, melted and cooled
- Egg
How to Make Keto Chicken and Dumplings:
Cook The Chicken:
- Heat a cast iron skillet over medium heat. Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Add olive oil to the skillet, then add in chicken breasts and brown on both sides. About 3-4 minutes per side.
- Remove from the skillet, then shred or cut into bite sized pieces. Set aside.
Cook The Vegetables:
- Add butter to the skillet, along with onions, carrots, and celery. Season with a pinch of salt and cook until vegetables are softened. About 5-7 minutes.
Add The Seasonings and Aromatics:
- After vegetables are softened, add in garlic, Italian seasoning, black pepper, lemon zest and xanthan gum. Stir to combine, and cook until garlic is fragrant, about 30 seconds.
Add The Liquids and Simmer:
- Add the chicken broth, lemon juice, minced parsley and chicken. Gently simmer for about 20 minutes while you prepare the dumplings.
To Make The Keto Dumplings:
- In a separate large mixing bowl, combine almond flour, whey protein isolate, Xanthan gum, baking powder, dried seasonings, salt and pepper. Whisk together until well combined.
- Add in egg, and melted butter.
- Stir to form a dough, then roll into balls.
To Finish The Dish:
- Drop the dumplings into the soup along with the heavy cream (if using), then gently simmer, covered for 15 minutes.
- Serve with fresh parsley and cracked pepper. Enjoy your keto chicken and dumplings!
How To Make Keto Chicken and Dumplings In The Instant Pot:
Follow all of the same instructions as above using the sauté function on your instant pot. You will want to leave the heavy cream out until the very end, however. When high pressure builds in your instant pot, the contents get extremely hot.
You don't want your cream to get too hot or overheat. Overheating your heavy cream will cause the mixture to curdle. No one wants that!
How To Add More Protein To This Dish:
A really easy way to add more protein to this dish is with chicken bone broth! It generally has between 9-13 grams of protein per every 1 cup, just depending on the brand. We've linked our favorite brand here.
How To Know When Your Keto Dumplings Are Done?
You will know when your keto chicken and dumplings are done after they increase in size after simmering for about 15 minutes. The size should roughly double. The final test comes from inserting a toothpick into the center of a dumpling. If the toothpick comes out clean, your chicken and dumplings are done.
How Many Net Carbs Are In This Dish?
There are 11 net carbs per serving in this keto dumplings recipe. While this dish is a little on the higher end of carbs for keto, it still totally works, especially since this is a main course.
Here's a few tips for lowering the carbs even further:
- Use garlic powder and onion powder in place of the real garlic and onion.
- Use less fresh onion or garlic.
- Skip the carrots.
- You can also reduce all of the dry seasonings in this dish, but they add a pretty small amount of carbs!
Can I Make This Keto Dumplings Dairy Free?
At this time, we're not sure how to go about making this dish dairy free. The main reason for that is we don't currently have a good substitute for the whey protein isolate we use.
We suppose you could omit it, and substitute with an equal amount of almond flour (again - we haven't tried this ourselves, so proceed with caution!)
You would then substitute butter used for oil, or vegan butter.
Lastly, just omit the heavy cream option, and you're good to go! Let us know how this turns out if you try it.
More Recipes To Try:
- Cajun Chicken Alfredo
- Steak and Seafood Skillet with Creamy Parmesan Sauce
- Keto Eggplant Milanese
- Chicken and Butternut Squash Skillet with Creamy Parmesan Sauce
- Keto Cabbage Roll Soup
Curious as to how we are using lemon juice in our cast iron skillet? Check out our cast iron care and cleaning guide here!
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If you get a chance to try this keto dumplings recipe, let us know what you think, would ya?! Leave us a comment, or catch up with us on Facebook or Instagram, or pin to your favorite Pinterest board for later. We love sharing your versions of our creations over on Instagram @afullliving!
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Until Next Time,
Briana & Chamere
📖 Recipe
Keto Chicken and Dumplings (Gluten Free)
Ingredients
For the soup or gravy:
- 1 pound chicken breasts
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt, divided
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 small yellow onion, diced
- 1 stalk celery, diced
- 1 medium carrot, peeled and diced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ whole lemon, juice and zest of (optional)
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- ½ teaspoon xanthan gum (optional to thicken the gravy)
- 1 tablespoon fresh parsley, minced (optional)
- 3.5 cups chicken broth
- ½ cup heavy cream, optional (can sub more chicken stock)
For the dumplings:
- 1 cup blanched almond flour
- 30 grams unflavored whey protein isolate (about 1 scoop)
- 1.5 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon xanthan gum (holds the dumplings together)
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon onion powder
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 1 whole egg
Instructions
- Heat a cast iron skillet over medium heat. Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Add olive oil to the skillet, then add in chicken breasts and brown on both sides. About 3-4 minutes per side. Remove from the skillet, then shred or cut into bite sized pieces. Set aside.
- Add butter to the skillet, along with onions, carrots, and celery. Season with a pinch of salt and cook until vegetables are softened. About 5-7 minutes. Stir in xanthan gum to thicken.
- After vegetables are softened, add in garlic, Italian seasoning, black pepper and lemon zest. Cook until garlic is fragrant, about 30 seconds.
- Add the chicken broth, lemon juice, minced parsley and chicken. Gently simmer for about 20 minutes while you prepare the dumplings.
- In a separate bowl, combine almond flour, whey protein isolate, Xanthan gum, baking powder, dried seasonings, salt and pepper. Whisk to combine, then add in the egg and melted and cooled butter. Stir to form a dough, then roll into balls. Drop the dumplings into the soup, along with heavy cream (if using) then gently simmer, covered for 15 minutes.
- Serve with fresh parsley and black pepper. Enjoy!
- This will save for about 5 days in an airtight container in the fridge.
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Notes
- If you like your chicken and dumplings creamy, add heavy cream. We left it out this time and it's very delicious even without the cream! You can substitute the heavy cream with more chicken broth or stock.
- Most store bought baking powder is gluten free. You should always double check the ingredients if you are celiac.
- We unfortunately can't recommend a good substitute for the whey protein at this time.
- To add more protein to this dish, use chicken bone broth instead of chicken broth or stock!
Amanda Miller says
My hubby and I really liked this! He said it was different from what he was used to (of course), but he still liked it. As did I.
Briana says
Hey Amanda,
So glad to hear this, and that you enjoyed how we put our own twist on it! 🙂 Thanks for giving it a try!
Karen says
I haven't made this yet but when I do I'm going to do what Tina did and make the dough in the morning and let it sit in the fridge all day first. I'm sure that must make a big difference, especially considering there are a lot of keto dough recipes out there that recommend you freeze or refrigerate the dough before you actually use it.
Going to try this myself and see if I'm right. Fingers crossed!
Briana says
That's a great idea Karen! We hate to see that there has been trouble with the dumplings. That's the nature of regular chicken and dumplings as well I suppose, unfortunately. Sometimes dumplings just disintegrate in the broth. Fortunately, we've never had a problem when testing and photographing! Hope all goes well!
Em says
So I tried this recipe again coz I’m really determined to master the dumplings! I tried doubling the baking powder and xanthan gum quantities rolled them tight as I could and put dumplings in hot stew mix after I turned off heat but with lid on just for 10 mins but sadly still fell apart 🙁 I’d love to master this to make for my mum who is new to keto and uses to make stew and dumplings when I was little - any suggestions please?!
Em says
This was super tasty didn’t have cream so improvised with cream cheese and Parmesan but my dumplings also fell apart and became part of the stew! Measurements were all accurate but my dough was quite sticky would you recommend adding more another 1/2 tsp xanthan and upping the baking powder?
Briana says
Hey Em, really sorry to hear your dumplings fell apart.
It seems a little split in the comments with what works and what doesn't, so I went ahead and updated the instructions to include more xanthan gum in the dumplings to be sure.
I don't think you need more baking powder. As long as your baking powder is fresh (we replace ours every 30 days) it should be enough.
Sorry this happened, but we're really glad you enjoyed the flavor at least!
Bridgette says
It was very flavorful, but my dumplings started falling apart after simmering for about 10 minutes.☹ Not sure what happened, I followed the recipe exactly except for the lemon juice and zest.
Briana says
We're sorry to hear that Bridgette! We've never had that happen to us, so unfortunately I'm not sure what went wrong. The lemon and zest and totally optional and that wouldn't impact the dumplings. My only advice is to roll the dumplings quite tight so they can hold together.
Sadie says
This looks to DIE for.. cannot wait to try and make this!
Tina says
I don’t normally comment but this turned out so good I figured I’d share. So I tried this today, I made the biscuit dough in the morning and let it sit in the fridge all day, then when I made the soup I spooned the dumplings on, I covered the pot with a lid and let it cook un disturbed for about 15-20 minutes Came out perfect, I was very pleased with the texture of the biscuits considering the texture of almond flour.
Briana says
Hey Tina!
That is so awesome to hear, we're so glad you enjoyed it. Really appreciate the thoughtful comment as well! 🙂