The 3-Ingredient Trader Joe's Employee Chicken And Dumpling Hack You Should Try

If there's one kind of recipe that a home cook should value above all others, it's a one-pot recipe with limited ingredients that still somehow tastes magical. That's the kind of recipe Trader Joe's employee Kathleen shared with her colleagues one day and then shared with the world.

It starts with good quality chicken broth. You want the best broth you can get for this since most of your flavor will come from it, but there's no need to make your own. Next comes your everyday canned biscuit dough. Split each biscuit into four balls to boil in the broth, watching as the starch in the biscuits thickens your broth deliciously. With that, your dumpling soup is ready.

But wait, what about the chicken? Well, like the first two ingredients, the secret is using ready-made. Kathleen used frozen Trader Joe's BBQ teriyaki chicken, saving the sauce for another day. You could do the same or use any other kind of pre-cooked chicken. Those roast chickens you can get at a supermarket could be picked apart and added to your soup, for example, or you could toss a bag of frozen fajita chicken slices in. Maybe add a bit of salt and pepper to taste, but otherwise, that's all there is to it.

If you have more time to put into it, or maybe you just love to experiment, there are many ways to upgrade the broth for this basic three-ingredient setup without introducing a single other pot or pan. A mirepoix is the perfect starting addition since you can fry it up before adding the broth, along with any other veggie or veggie-adjacent ingredients you may want. Garlic is a great choice, as is a dash of tomato paste for flavor and color.

Once the broth has been added, you can jazz up the dish with herbs and seasonings. A bouquet garni imparts the most flavor (though dried herbs are perfectly delicious, too), with rosemary and dill being wonderful additions. If you're looking to add more umami to your broth, now is the time to throw in a parmesan rind if you have it, or maybe a little miso paste or soy sauce.

There's not much you can do about the biscuits outside of playing around with their size and shape. You could try splitting each into two large balls instead of four small ones, for example, or flatten the dough into strips. As for the chicken, as mentioned earlier, there are plenty of prepared flavors and styles to play with straight off the shelf, so experiment and enjoy.