Pennsylvania Dutch chicken corn soup with rivels is a homemade chicken broth (made from a rotisserie chicken carcass) simmered with tender chicken, sweet corn, carrots, celery, onion and chopped hard-boiled eggs, then finished with rivels: tiny, rustic flour-and-egg dumplings dropped right into the boiling soup. It takes about 45 minutes and serves 6.
Chicken and dumplings soup is simple and nourishing comfort in a bowl. This traditional Pennsylvania Dutch soup is a family recipe handed down and staple in our family. Tiny homemade, pillowy soft dumplings, tender chunks of chicken, and kernels of fresh sweet corn in a rich homemade chicken broth. It doesn’t get any better than this!
This recipe has all my heart and takes me back to my Pennsylvania Dutch roots. I’ve pretty much been perfecting this recipe since I was a little girl. I can vividly remember my mom making this and actually making and cutting out her own noodles. I didn’t go that far in this recipe, but I have found a way to make those noodles/dumplings in an easier way, still sticking to the authenticity in taste.
This recipe for Pennsylvania Dutch Chicken Corn Soup with Rivels, or dumplings is my take on an old-fashioned PA Dutch country classic.
What are rivels?
In short, rivels are a PA Dutch form of dumpling. Rivels have similar ingredients to egg noodles, but rather than being flattened and sliced, rivels are dropped into soup in small chunks, and are similar to small, tough dumplings. I promise you, these are so simple to make. You can just sound super fancy when you explain to others that you are making Pennsylvania Dutch rivels!
This staple comfort soup is a timeless Pennsylvania Dutch favorite, and will warm you up from the inside out. I love making this recipe throughout the year. I will always make it after we roast or smoke a whole chicken. A rotisserie chicken would be perfect for this recipe.
How do you make authentic pennsylvania dutch chicken soup?
With this recipe we will walk through how to make your own broth. This recipe will steer you in the right direction for making the best PA Dutch chicken soup! You will want to use your own judgement in taste, and I always get extra chicken broth & bouillon on hand, just in case I need to enhance flavors. You can skip the noodles/dumplings or add some thin noodles in their place.
Ingredients
To make this comforting and nourishing soup traditional pennsylvania dutch chicken soup with dumplings, you’ll need a few ingredients that you can get at almost any grocery store or even online.
Here’s what we are working with:
- Rotisserie chicken
- Chicken broth (if not using chicken carcass)
- Italian seasoning
- garlic powder
- sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- dill weed
- corn
- celery
- onion
- carrots
- chives
- hard boiled eggs
- all-purpose flour
- milk
- egg
How to make traditional pennsylvania dutch chicken noodle soup
You’ll find the exact amounts and printable steps in the recipe card below. Here’s what each step looks like, plus the little things that make it work.
1. Pull the chicken. Start with a whole chicken; a rotisserie chicken works well. Remove the meat and set it aside, saving the carcass for the broth.
2. Make the broth. Cover the chicken carcass with water in a large Dutch oven. Add salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, garlic powder and a pinch of dill, bring it to a boil and let it simmer. Strain the broth into a large bowl and discard the carcass. No carcass? Use store-bought chicken broth instead.
3. Sauté the vegetables. In the same Dutch oven, sauté the very finely diced carrots, celery and onion with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Dicing them small means they cook quickly and fit on a spoon with the corn and rivels.
4. Build the soup. Mix in the chicken and cover everything with the reserved broth. Drain the corn and add it, along with the hard-boiled eggs cut into bite-size pieces.
5. Mix the rivel batter. Mix the flour, beaten egg and milk until very well blended. I add a few teaspoons of the broth and some chopped chives, too, just for flavor.
6. Drop the rivels. Make sure the soup is boiling, then use a fork to drop very teeny bits of batter into the pot. They aren’t supposed to be pretty, so don’t worry about rolling them or making them uniform. To skip this step, add some broken thin noodles instead.
7. Cook and season. Keep stirring at a boil until the rivels are cooked and have a doughy texture. Taste and add more salt and pepper, or another chicken bouillon and water, if needed.
8. Garnish and serve. Finish with fresh chopped parsley or chives.
how to make chicken corn soup in the slow cooker
The stovetop method above is how I make this soup, and it’s ready in under an hour. If you’d rather let the crockpot do the work, here’s how to adapt it. Think of it as a guide rather than a separate recipe, and keep an eye on it the first time you try it, since every slow cooker heats a little differently.
1. Start the broth. Make the homemade broth on the stovetop as in step 2, or skip it and use about 6 cups of store-bought chicken broth.
2. Add everything but the chicken. Add the broth, the finely diced carrots, celery and onion, the drained corn and the seasonings to a 6-quart slow cooker.
3. Cook until tender. Cover and cook on LOW for about 4-6 hours or HIGH for about 2-3 hours, until the vegetables are tender.
4. Add the chicken and eggs. Stir in the shredded chicken and the chopped hard-boiled eggs. They’re already cooked, so they only need to heat through.
5. Cook the rivels. Turn the slow cooker to HIGH and make sure the broth is bubbling before you drop in the rivel batter with a fork. Cover and cook for about 20-30 minutes, stirring once or twice, until the rivels are cooked all the way through. Break one open to check that there’s no raw batter in the middle.
If your slow cooker doesn’t get the broth bubbling, pour the soup into a large pot and cook the rivels on the stovetop at a boil, just like in the main recipe. That’s the most reliable way to get the right doughy texture.
can I meal prep chicken and dumplings soup?
Yes! Soup is one of my favorite things to prep. You can make a big batch of it to have on a Sunday and still have plenty to get you through the week. You can easily meal prep this chicken and dumplings soup recipe. Additionally, it can be frozen and then reheated for a quick and easy nourishing meal. This chicken soup recipe makes better leftovers as the flavors have time to mesh together. This recipe can be divided into 4 meal prep containers to keep you fueled throughout the week!
how to store and freeze chicken corn soup
Refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours in airtight containers and enjoy within 3–4 days, or freeze for longer storage and thaw overnight in the fridge. Reheat on the stovetop until steaming hot (165°F), adding a splash of broth if the soup has thickened.
more Pennsylvania Dutch soups
If you love this one, try our Better Than Grandma’s PA Dutch Ham and String Bean Soup, another comforting family recipe.
That’s all I’ve got for the chicken soup with dumplings recipe!
I hope you enjoy my pennsylvania dutch chicken noodle soup recipe as much as our little tribe has time and time again. Please leave us a star review and comment if you make this traditional pa dutch soup recipe.
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below. I answer every single question as quickly as I can.
Happy cooking! And thanks for being part of my tribe, The Tasteful Tribe!
PA Dutch chicken corn soup FAQs
Rivels are a Pennsylvania Dutch dumpling made from flour, egg and milk. Instead of being rolled and sliced like noodles, the batter is dropped into boiling soup in tiny, rustic bits.
Rivels are a type of dumpling, just smaller and simpler. They’re made from flour, egg and a little milk, with no baking powder, and they’re dropped into boiling soup in tiny, irregular bits, so they cook up chewy, a little like spaetzle. Fluffy drop dumplings, like the ones in Southern chicken and dumplings, usually have baking powder and are spooned in as bigger mounds that steam up light and biscuit-like.
They’re close cousins. Rivels are a small, simple type of dumpling, so this soup is sometimes called PA Dutch chicken and dumplings soup or chicken corn noodle soup.
Yes. A rotisserie chicken is perfect: use the meat in the soup and the carcass to make the homemade broth.
Yes. Add some broken thin noodles in place of the rivels if you’d like to skip that step.
Yes. Cook the broth, vegetables and corn on LOW for about 4-6 hours or HIGH for about 2-3 hours, stir in the cooked chicken and eggs, then cook the rivels on HIGH with the broth bubbling. See the slow cooker section above for the details.
Yes. Freeze it in airtight containers, thaw overnight in the fridge and reheat until steaming hot.
If you love this recipe, check out…
- Better Than Grandma’s PA Dutch Potato and Bread Stuffing
- The Best Caramel Apple Dumplings
- Pennsylvania Dutch Recipes: Soups, Potato Filling and Dumplings
- Easy Chicken and Stars Soup
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Chicken Soup With Dumplings (Traditional Pennsylvania Dutch Soup)
- SFSugar Free
Ingredients
- 1 rotisserie chicken, meat removed, carcass set aside for broth (if making homemade)
- 6 cups water , enough to cover chicken carcass
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 pinch dried dill
- 2 cans corn , (yellow, white or mix), 14.5 oz each
- 3 stalks celery, finely diced
- 1 large onion, finely diced
- 2 whole carrots, finely diced
- 3 tsp fresh parsley or chives, finely diced
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 4 hard-boiled eggs
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup milk
- 1 egg , beaten
Instructions
- Start with a whole chicken, a rotisserie chicken works well. Remove the meat and set aside.
- Make the broth: cover the chicken carcass in a large dutch oven with water. Add salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, garlic powder and a pinch of dill and bring to a boil. Let simmer for 20-25 minutes. You will want to strain the broth and reserve it in a large bowl and discard the chicken carcass.
- In the same dutch oven sautée very finely diced carrots, celery, and onion with salt and pepper. Mix in the chicken and then cover with the reserved broth.
- Drain the cans of corn, add it in along with hard-boiled eggs cut into bite size pieces.
- Mix the flour, beaten egg, and milk well. I add a few teaspoons of the broth and chopped chives, too, just for flavor.
- Once the mixture is very well blended, use a fork to drop very teeny balls into the soup; be sure that broth is boiling. They are not supposed to be pretty, so don't worry about rolling them or making them uniform! You can add some broken thin noodles instead if you want to skip this step.
- Continue stirring over a boil for about 10 minutes. The dumplings should have a dough texture. Add more salt & pepper as needed, and water, if necessary.
- Add fresh chopped parsley or chives.
Equipment
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