Low-Fat Chicken and Dumplings: 4 g of Fat a Serving, Dumplings Still Fluffy

Low-Fat Chicken and Dumplings

Chicken and dumplings carries its fat in two separate places, and most lightened-up versions only find one of them. The broth is usually built on a roux — butter and flour cooked together — and the dumplings are usually biscuit dough, which means solid fat rubbed into flour. Take the butter out of both without replacing what it did, and you get thin pale broth with dense grey lumps sitting in it.

So this version replaces the two jobs separately. The broth gets its body from its own vegetables, blended smooth and stirred back in, then finished with a small cornstarch slurry. The dumplings rise on baking powder and buttermilk, and they stay light because they steam under a lid instead of boiling in the liquid. Fat per serving comes out at 4 g. The same dish built on a roux and a butter dough runs about 26 g.

Fat: 4 g · Saturated fat: 1.1 g · Calories: 305 · Protein: 28 g · Fibre: 3 g · Carbs: 37 g · Serves: 6 · Prep: 20 min · Cook: 45 min

Why This Version Works

A roux for a pot this size is about 55 g of butter, which is roughly 45 g of fat spread across six bowls before the chicken is counted at all. What the butter actually contributes is dispersion: it keeps the flour starch separated so it swells evenly instead of seizing into lumps. The starch is what thickens. Cornstarch slaked in cold water disperses just as evenly with no fat at all, and a ladle of the cooked potato, carrot and onion blended smooth brings back the soft opacity a roux gives — the part people actually taste.

Biscuit dumplings are tender because solid fat coats the flour and keeps long gluten strands from forming. Buttermilk does a related job from the other direction: its acid weakens gluten and reacts with the baking powder and bicarbonate for lift, so a dough stirred for ten seconds and dropped straight onto the stew stays soft. The other half of a good dumpling is heat. Dumplings dropped into open liquid boil on the underside and stay raw on top. With the lid on and the broth barely shivering, they cook in trapped steam, swell by about half, and set dry on the outside in fifteen minutes.

The chicken goes in whole and comes out before the vegetables finish. Skinless breast held at a rolling boil squeezes out its moisture and turns stringy; poached at a shiver for fifteen minutes and then rested, it shreds into soft pieces that soak up broth instead of fighting it.

Ingredients

For the stew

• 600 g skinless chicken breast (about two large ones)
• 2 l low-sodium chicken broth
• 2 carrots, diced
• 2 celery ribs, sliced
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 medium potato, about 180 g, diced small
• 2 bay leaves and 1 tsp dried thyme
• 2 tbsp cornstarch slaked in 3 tbsp cold water
• 2 tbsp chopped parsley
• Salt and plenty of black pepper

For the dumplings

• 240 g plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• Half a tsp bicarbonate of soda
• Half a tsp salt
• 240 ml low-fat buttermilk (1%)
• 2 tsp chopped chives, optional

Instructions

1. Bring the broth to a gentle simmer with the bay leaves and thyme. Lower in the chicken breasts whole, cover, and poach 15 minutes at the barest simmer — the surface should shiver, not bubble. Lift the chicken onto a plate to rest.
2. Add the carrot, celery, onion and potato to the broth. Simmer uncovered for 15 minutes, until the potato crushes easily against the side of the pot.
3. Lift out about 300 ml of vegetables and broth, blend it smooth, and stir it back in. The soup turns opaque and faintly thick.
4. Stir the cornstarch slurry into the simmering pot and give it two minutes to lose its raw edge. Shred the rested chicken and return it with any juices. Taste for salt and pepper now — you cannot stir it once the dumplings are on.
5. Whisk the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate and salt together. Pour in the buttermilk and stir for about ten seconds, just until no dry flour is left. The dough should look lumpy and sticky. Do not knead it.
6. Drop the dough in twelve spoonfuls over the surface, leaving a gap between them. Lower the heat until the broth barely moves, cover tightly, and cook 15 minutes without lifting the lid.
7. Test one dumpling with a skewer; it should come out dry. Scatter the parsley and serve straight from the pot.

Nutrition per Serving

• Total fat 4 g
• Saturated fat 1.1 g
• Calories 305
• Protein 28 g
• Carbohydrate 37 g
• Fibre 3 g
• Sodium about 480 mg with low-sodium broth

Most of the fat that is left comes from the chicken itself, and it arrives with 28 g of protein a bowl, which is the trade worth making. In the three-phase structure used in the cookbook this sits in Phase 3: soft and gentle, but a full mixed meal rather than a convalescent one.

Variations

• Turkey. Skinless turkey breast behaves the same way and poaches in the same time. Thigh meat pushes the fat to about 9 g a serving.
• Herb dumplings. A tablespoon of chopped dill, chives or parsley folded into the dry flour is free, in fat terms, and changes the dish completely.
• Mushroom instead of chicken. 400 g of sliced mushrooms browned on a dry tray and a litre of vegetable broth give a meatless pot at about 3 g of fat, though protein drops to 9 g.
• Gluten-free. A cup-for-cup gluten-free blend works for the dumplings if you add an extra tablespoon of buttermilk; they steam a little denser.
• Slow cooker. Stew on low for four hours, then switch to high, drop the dumplings on and cover for 30 minutes.

Storing and Reheating

Dumplings keep drinking broth overnight, so a leftover pot sets into something closer to a pie filling. If you expect leftovers, lift the dumplings out before the pot cools and keep them in their own container; both halves hold three days in the fridge. Reheat the stew gently with a splash of broth, then lay the dumplings on top and cover for five minutes to steam them back.

Freezing works for the stew alone, up to three months. Frozen dumplings go spongy on thawing, and they take ten minutes to make fresh.

What to Serve With It

This is a one-bowl dinner, so anything alongside should be sharp rather than rich. Steamed green beans with lemon, a plain tomato salad, or wilted spinach with a scrape of garlic all work. If you want more ideas built the same way, the weeknight chicken collection and the low-fat soup recipes are the nearest neighbours on this site.

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Questions People Ask

Can I make the dumplings without buttermilk?

Yes. Stir a tablespoon of lemon juice or white vinegar into 240 ml of skim milk and leave it five minutes until it thickens slightly. It gives the acid the bicarbonate needs. Plain skim milk on its own will work with the baking powder alone, but the dumplings come out a little tougher.

Why did my dumplings come out gummy in the middle?

Three usual causes. The lid came off during the 15 minutes, so the steam escaped and the tops never set. The dough was stirred past the ten-second mark, which builds gluten. Or the dumplings were sitting in too much liquid — they should rest on the surface of the stew, not float in a thin broth.

Is this a sensible dish while recovering from a flare?

It is written as a Phase 3 recipe, which assumes you are back on ordinary mixed meals. In the early days after a flare people are usually eating something far simpler, and what you eat and when is a question for the clinician who knows your case. Where a recipe like this earns its place is afterwards, when you want a familiar comfort dish that still prints its own fat number.

Can I use shop-bought rotisserie chicken to save time?

You can, but strip the skin and use breast meat only; skin and dark meat take the dish to roughly 9 g of fat a serving. You also lose the poaching step, which is where a lot of the broth flavour comes from, so add an extra half teaspoon of thyme and a bay leaf to compensate.