This rich, creamy pumpkin soup is perfect for fall! A store bought rotisserie chicken keeps prep simple, and this soup uses the entire can of pumpkin (no leftovers!) Ready in under an hour.
This autumnal twist on a classic chicken and dumplings recipe is deceptively simple: The most time-consuming task is chopping the aromatics (garlic, onion, and celery). Once that prep is done, this soup comes together very quickly.
We used shredded rotisserie chicken in the photos below; this is also a great place to use meal prepped slow cooker shredded chicken or dutch oven pulled chicken.
Ingredients
Find a full ingredients list with exact quantities in the recipe card below.
Before you jump in, there are a few things we want to highlight:
- White wine adds important acidity to this soup. You can swap it for additional chicken stock, but you'll want to add something else acidic (like a squeeze of fresh lemon juice) at the very end of cooking for balance.
- Canned pumpkin. You'll use part of the can in the dumpling dough; the rest will go directly into the soup.
- Milk. Our testers preferred milk here: It adds creaminess without over-thickening the soup (the pumpkin purée and dumplings thicken the soup plenty on their own!) Skip the milk to keep this recipe dairy-free; swap it for heavy cream or half and half if you'd like a richer, thicker texture.
Variations and Substitutions
- Swap the pumpkin for sweet potato or butternut squash purée.
- Add extra vegetables. Spinach, kale, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, cannellini beans, and butter beans are all tasty additions here.
- For more complex flavor, add a pinch of smoked paprika or cayenne pepper with the other dried herbs. You can also add a dash of fish sauce, soy sauce, or Worcestershire sauce to creamy soups at the end of cooking for more flavor.
- Swap the dried herbs for fresh thyme and sage if you like.
Step by step instructions
Start the soup
Sauté onions, celery, and garlic in a large pot with a bit of olive oil.
Stir in your seasonings and some of the canned pumpkin puree (save about ½ cup of pumpkin for the dumplings!) Deglaze with white wine and stir in the chicken stock, then bring the soup to a low simmer.
Make the dumplings
In a separate bowl, stir the remaining pumpkin together with flour, baking powder, dried sage, and a pinch of salt. You should have a thick dough with a dense, somewhat stretchy feel to it.
Pro Tip: The dumpling mixture will feel dry and crumbly at first, but it will come together as the moisture from the pumpkin saturates the flour. Just keep mixing!
Cook the dumplings
Use a spoon to portion out your dumpling dough, and drop each dumpling into the simmering soup. When all the dumplings are in, add the shredded chicken and gently stir everything together.
Let the soup cook a few minutes more, until the dumplings are soft and puffy and the chicken is warmed through. The dumplings will thicken the soup quite a bit as they cook.
We made bite-sized dumplings here - each about ½ teaspoon of dough - but you can make your dumplings as large or small as you like!
Finally, stir in the milk. Taste the dumpling soup and add salt or pepper as needed.
Serving suggestions: Pair this soup with a loaf of homemade no knead bread or a quick salad (we love it with this quick lemon arugula salad or a 5 minute spinach balsamic salad!)
Did you make this recipe? Leave a comment and star rating below to let us know how it turned out!
📖 Recipe
Pumpkin Chicken and Dumplings Soup
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: Serves 4
- Category: Soup
- Cuisine: American
Description
This easy, cozy pumpkin soup is a fall twist on classic chicken and dumplings! Ready in under an hour.
Ingredients
For the soup
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large yellow onion, diced (about 1 ½ cups)
- 2 large celery sticks, diced (about 1 ½ cups)
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 teaspoons dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon dried sage
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 heaping cup pumpkin purée (see recipe notes)
- ½ cup dry white wine (we used a Chardonnay)
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 2 cups cooked, shredded chicken
- ⅓ cup milk
For the dumplings
- ½ cup canned pumpkin purée (see recipe notes)
- 1 cup all purpose flour (120 grams)
- 1 teaspoon dried sage
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- pinch of Kosher salt
Instructions
Start the soup
- Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add onion, celery, and garlic. Sauté, stirring frequently, for 3-5 minutes until onion has softened and begins to brown.
- Add thyme, sage, salt, and pepper; stir to combine.
- Reserve ½ cup of pumpkin purée for the dumplings; stir the rest into the soup pot.
- Deglaze with white wine, then stir in the chicken broth and another generous pinch of kosher salt. Bring soup to a simmer while you mix the dumplings.
Mix the dumpling dough
- Stir reserved pumpkin purée, flour, sage, baking powder, and a pinch of kosher salt together in a medium bowl. It will feel like it isn’t quite coming together at first, but as the moisture in the pumpkin saturates the flour it will pull together in a thick, shaggy dough (we like to use a fork to mix everything until no dry flour remains).
Cook the dumplings & finishing touches
- Use a teaspoon to portion the dumpling dough into pieces and drop them into the soup as it simmers (we like using about ½ teaspoon per dumpling for bite-sized pieces). Spread the dumplings out across the surface of the soup as you drop them in to prevent sticking.
- Add cooked chicken and gently stir to combine. Cook another 6-8 minutes at a very low simmer, until dumplings are puffy and cooked through.
- Stir in milk, then taste the soup and add salt and pepper as needed. Serve immediately.
Notes
A note about pumpkin. You'll use one full 15-ounce can of pumpkin purée in this recipe. Reserve ½ cup of pumpkin for the dumpling dough; stir the rest into the soup itself. Look for pumpkin labeled "100% pure pumpkin," as opposed to pumpkin pie filling.
Substitutions and Additions. The wine lends important acidity to this soup; if you’d like an alcohol free version, use additional chicken stock instead of the wine, but finish the soup with a splash of lemon juice or a few drops of apple cider vinegar just before serving to help mimic the balance the white wine gives us here. Add kale, spinach, or beans (cannellini beans, butter beans) to this soup to make it a bit heartier. For extra depth of flavor, add a pinch of cayenne pepper or smoked paprika along with the other dried herbs, or finish the soup with a few drops of an umami-rich sauce (like Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, or fish sauce).
We used store-bought rotisserie chicken here; you can swap it for meal prepped crockpot chicken or Dutch oven shredded chicken. If you don't have pre-cooked chicken on hand, you can make it at the beginning: Season boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs, sear in a bit of oil until browned, then set aside while you build the soup (we do all of this in the same soup pot for maximum flavor). Return seared chicken to the soup when you add the chicken broth, simmer until it's cooked through, then shred the chicken and continue with the dumplings as instructed.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 2 ½ cups
- Calories: 422
- Sugar: 8 g
- Sodium: 1251.8 mg
- Fat: 13.8 g
- Carbohydrates: 41.9 g
- Protein: 28.4 g
- Cholesterol: 64.2 mg
Jessie @ Life As A Strawberry
I can't stop making this soup. I almost always have some cooked chicken on hand (either a rotisserie chicken from the store or some meal prepped chicken from earlier in the week), which saves a ton of time and helps this recipe come together really quickly. I love adding a few handfuls of spinach or kale for a bit of color. Leftovers keep well for a few days in the fridge, too!