The chicken will cook in 4-6 hours on low for this one (usually within 4 with my slow cooker), but make sure you allow for around 60 minutes of prep time (mostly passive) right before eating for the vegetables to heat and the dumplings to cook!

Ingredients:

Stew:

• 1.5 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 4 tsp avocado oil
• 1 onion, white or yellow, finely chopped
• 2-3 celery ribs, diced
• 1 TB minced garlic
• 1 TB tomato paste
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1/4 c flour (whole wheat or all purpose)
• 1/4 c white wine (or chicken broth if you prefer)
• 10 oz bag of frozen mixed vegetables, defrosted
• 2.5 c chicken broth
• 1 bay leaf

Dumplings:

• 1 2/3 c flour (I use whole wheat, but all-purpose is fine)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2/3 tsp salt
• 2/3 c milk (whole)
• 2 TB unsalted butter

Preparation:

1. Heat 2 tsp oil in a skillet over medium-high heat and brown chicken lightly on both sides, 5-8 minutes.  Transfer to slow cooker.
2. Heat remaining oil in pan and add onions, celery, garlic, tomato paste and thyme.  Cook until vegetables are lightly browned, 8-10 minutes.  Stir in flour and cook for 1 minute.  Whisk in wine or broth, scrape up any browned bits.  Whisk in one cup of broth and smooth out any lumps.  Transfer to slow cooker.
3. Stir remaining broth and bay leaf into slow cooker.  Cover and cook until chicken is tender, 4-6 hours on low.
4. Transfer chicken to cutting board, let cool slightly, and shred into bite sized pieces.  Discard bay leaf.
5. Stir shredded chicken and defrosted vegetables into stew.  Adjust stew consistency with additional hot broth, if needed.  Cover and cook on high until simmering (20-30 minutes).
6. While the stew is returning to a simmer, make dumplings: whisk flour, baking powder and salt together in a large boil.  Microwave milk and butter together until warm (don’t overheat!) (around 1 minute), then stir to melt butter.  Stir milk mixture into flour mixture until just incorporated.  Drop golf ball sized dumplings on top of simmer stew.  Cover and cook until they have doubled in size, around 30 minutes.
7. Serve!