Comfort Food for a Kidney-Friendly Diet: One-Pot Chicken and Dumplings

Low Sodium Chicken And Dumplings

Comfort Food for a Kidney-Friendly Diet: One-Pot Chicken and Dumplings

Think you can’t have comfort food while following a Renal Diet? Think again! We’ve modified traditional chicken and dumplings to make this a kidney-friendly meal by slashing the sodium!

Chicken and dumplings in a white bowl being dished out with a spoon.

Modifications to make this quintessential comfort food Kidney Friendly

In Texas, winter comes in week-long spurts followed by spring with dashes of summer.  This patterns goes on from November through end of February.  For the cold weeks, I love being wrapped in the savory scent of hot stew, accompanied by bread or biscuits. Chicken and dumplings is my personal favorite. A fellow dietitian sent this recipe to me as one of her winter staples that she recommends to her patients and feeds to her family. I whipped up a batch with a few modifications and can’t wait to share! Soup, for the renal diet, is always a challenge as it is traditionally a salty item. And, quite honestly, the salty-savory taste is often the hallmark and base of a great soup.

Top view of Ingredients for chicken and dumplings on a table: 2 carrots, spig of celery, one whole onion, in individual glass bowls butter slices, diced chicken, and frozen green beans

Chicken Broth- how to choose the best option for the Renal diet

When making a chicken-based stew, most recipes will call for a chicken stock or chicken broth.  To be clear, these are not the same and the variation in sodium AND potassium is enormous among the different products. I pulled what looked like a seemingly benign carton of chicken stock and was surprised to find it had 380mg of potassium per cup. Even with my experience, I couldn’t believe that some chicken stock/broth products had that much potassium! I’ve found Lipton no sodium chicken bouillon packets in my local Walmart before, but couldn’t find it recently, so I settled with the Great Value Organic Chicken broth, which had 140mg sodium/cup and 15 mg potassium/cup. Much better, right? For the purpose of keeping potassium and sodium low, this is the product we opted for in this recipe.

One of our other favorite low sodium chicken broth products is the Pacific Foods Organic Free Range Chicken broth. This one clocks in at only 20 mg of Sodium with no added potassium!

Kidney-Friendly Baking powder

I fully recognize that not everyone has Ener-G Baking Powder Substitute on hand (though it is a worthwhile staple if you like to bake). The advantage of the Ener-G product is that it is low in sodium and phosphate free, but keep in mind that it does contain a significant amount of calcium and magnesium. High-five for cutting out those two buggers in one easy swap! However, you can still go phosphate free (though not as low in sodium) by using a combination of cream of tartar and baking soda to sub for the baking powder. The formula is always 1 teaspoon cream of tartar + 1/4 tsp baking soda per 1 teaspoon of baking powder.

Craving more comfort food?

Looking for more comfort food recipes? Check out this delicious recipe for Pumpkin Macaroni and “Cheese”!

Want to learn more about how we combine delicious food and the power of nutrition to preserve kidney function?

We are here to help! Join our monthly class to find out how we use the power of nutrition to help preserve kidney function. If you prefer a one-to one setting, consider booking a session with one of our expert Renal Dietitians.

Chicken Dumplings 27

Kidney-Friendly Comfort Food: Chicken and Dumplings

For a cold winter day, nothing beats a hot bowl of savory chicken and dumplings.
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Course: Main, Soup
Cuisine: American, Southwestern
Keyword: Low Calorie, Low Phosphorus, Low Potassium, Low Sodium
Diet Type: CKD, Dialysis
Servings: 6
Calories: 297kcal
Author: The KidneyRD Team

Ingredients

  • 5 tablespoons cold unsalted butter divided
  • 1 small yellow onion minced
  • 1 stalk celery thinly sliced
  • 2 carrots diced medium
  • 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour divided
  • 3 cups low sodium chicken broth *see note
  • 1 1/2 cups diced cooked chicken
  • 1/3 pound green beans trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces (or just use frozen green beans)
  • Optional spices we think these make the recipe go from good to wow!
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 tablespoon parsley
  • 1/4 teaspoon celery seed
  • 1/2 teaspoon rosemary
  • 1/2 teaspoon thyme
  • 3 drops sriracha sauce
  • Pepper to taste
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder preferably Ener-G Baking Powder Substitute
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley plus more for topping
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk or rice milk

Instructions

  • In a large saucepan, melt 3 tablespoons butter over medium-high. Add onion, celery, and carrots and cook until onion is translucent, about 4 minutes. Add 1/4 cup flour and cook, stirring, 1 minute. Gradually add broth, stirring constantly, then bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes. Stir in chicken, green beans, spices and season with salt and pepper.
  • Make dumplings: Whisk together 1 cup flour, baking powder, 1/2 tsp coarse salt (opt), and 2 tablespoons parsley. Cut in 2 tablespoons butter. Stir in almond milk. Drop heaping spoonfuls batter on top of chicken mixture. Cover and simmer until dumplings are cooked through, about 12 minutes. Serve topped with additional chopped parsley.

Notes

*Look carefully at your label for your broth and stock. They vary widely in potassium and sodium content. * I added a 1/2 tsp salt after tasting it. This adds ~200 mg sodium/serving. You may not need this, and ideally you'd leave it out. However, in perspective 366 mg sodium for a cup of soup is very reasonable for a meal.

Nutrition

Calories: 297kcal | Carbohydrates: 28g | Protein: 19g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 63mg | Sodium: 203mg | Potassium: 506mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 4059IU | Vitamin C: 9mg | Calcium: 78mg | Iron: 2mg
Tried this recipe?Mention @KNI_Care or tag #KNIrecipes!

KidneyGrub Verdict:

I liked this. The original recipe is from the Martha Stewart collection. I liked that it was warm and only took one-pot (clean-up is not my favorite part of cooking). I added several savory herbs to the recipe to increase the flavor since we cut back on the salt from the original recipe. However, you’ll see in the notes, I added a touch of salt to the recipe per my tastes.  I generally eat very low sodium, but I still felt like it needed a touch of salt to make the flavors pop. Another perk of this recipe is that it was better the second day. The flavors intensified during the evening and made for a warm, inviting lunch the next day.

Chicken and dumplings in a stainless steel sauté pan with a wooden cutting board with fresh parsley in the background

14 thoughts on “Comfort Food for a Kidney-Friendly Diet: One-Pot Chicken and Dumplings”

  1. I am going crazy trying to find things for my husband his kidneys are stage 4
    Low sodium low protein every thing he wants he can not have it please help

  2. Hi Grace – This is a big challenge! Making the nutrition work for people can be hard. I’d love to meet with you and sort things out. You can call my office to set up an appointment at 979.353.1126 OR I also just sent you an email.

  3. A bit of warning: No-Salt bouillon substitutes Potassium for Sodium, which can be much worse for your kidneys! I find that the Swanson No-Salt-Added broth (chicken or beef) serves very well in recipes. Also, remember to count the sodium in the baking powder for your mineral limit goals. Same Potassium problem with no-salt baking powders, BTW, and the no-potassium sodium free ones are sky high in Phosphorus (worse still)!

    I intend to make a batch of this recipe with no-yolk eggwhite noodles (“dumplings”) and reduce the sodium, potassium, and phosphorus even more.

  4. Hi Charles – These are great points! I like to use the low sodium, phosphate free baking powder from Ener-G foods. I order from Amazon or other specialty grocers. Love your idea to use egg noodles for this!

  5. I’m going through the same thing… can he have turkey bacon, spaghetti, Canadian bacon, turkey sausage, turkey sausage gravy, brown or white rice??? I’m so confused ????‍♀️

  6. HI Marilyn,
    I think the renal diet is so confusing for many people. I highly recommend finding a renal dietitian in your area to be your coach and cheerleader. So much of the diet is not black and white guidelines, but finding the right portions. But to answer your above questions – any type of bacon, any type of sausage is all dependent on sodium content. You want to keep sodium to a minimum. I generally recommend for my clients to use these salty meats as a flavor in their meals not as the main part of meal. Aka, use crumbled bacon or crumbled sausage on top of a soup instead of as chunks in the soup. Brown rice is fine for people with kidney disease. It is slightly higher in phosphorus than white rice, but because of the fiber in the brown rice, much of that extra phos is not absorbed by the body.

    To find a renal dietitian you can check out NKF’s database here: National Kidney Foundation Renal Dietitian Database.

  7. I’m in a new relationship with a diabetic. I was looking forward to cooking for him but I just found out I have prediabetes and kidney disease. I don’t know what stage. My doctor didn’t suggest I go on a special diet I’m scared and I want to follow a diabetic/kidney healthy diet. My problem is I longer know what to cook for us. This is making me depressed

  8. My husband had a heart attack last month. It’s very tiring trying to find recipes that are for a peritoneal/heart attack person. His phosphorus is high and protein is low. I am going to make this for him. Thanks

  9. Hi Susan,
    We hope that he enjoys this dish and that you are able to find more easy and comforting recipes on our site!

  10. May i ask a menu for my husband suffering diabetic and chronic kidney. as of this time he undergo dialysis twice a week,insulin 3 times before eating breakfast,lunch dinner. my problem is what kind of foods to give him during breakfast lunch dinner.its hard for me so pls help me where i find that menu

  11. My uncle is going through the same problem. I would love to see what foods you are preparing so I can do the same.

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