Description
One-pot ground beef and dumplings made with refrigerated biscuit dough, condensed soups, and frozen vegetables. Family-friendly dinner ready in 45 minutes.
Ingredients
For the Base:
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 1 lb lean ground beef
- 1 cup diced yellow onion
- 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
For the Broth:
- 10.5 oz can condensed cheddar soup
- 10.5 oz can condensed cream-of-bacon soup
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 2 cups half-and-half
For the Dumplings & Veggies:
- 2 cups frozen mixed vegetables
- 1 can refrigerated biscuit dough (about 10 biscuits)
Instructions
Heat the oil in your big pot. Medium-high heat, whatever that means on your stove. Mine goes up to 10 so I put it on 7. While it heats up, chop your onion. I cut mine pretty small because my middle kid picks out onion pieces if he can see them.
Put the beef and onions in at the same time. This saves a step and they cook fine together. Break up the meat with your spoon – really break it up, not just poke at it a few times. Took me years to figure out that big chunks of ground beef are gross. Cook until the beef isn’t pink anymore and the onions look soft. Maybe eight or ten minutes.
Throw in the garlic and Italian seasoning. Stir it around for a minute until you can smell the garlic. Don’t let it burn or it gets bitter and you have to start over. Ask me how I know.
Open both cans of soup and dump them in. Then add the chicken broth and half-and-half. Stir everything together. It looks weird at first, kind of chunky and separated, but it smooths out as it heats up.
Add the frozen vegetables straight from the bag. Don’t thaw them first or they’ll get mushy. Turn the heat up and wait for everything to start bubbling. Takes maybe five minutes because all that frozen stuff cools it down.
While you wait, get your biscuits out and cut each one into six pieces. I use kitchen scissors because it’s faster and I don’t have to get a cutting board dirty. Just snip snip snip right over the pot. When the soup is bubbling hard – not just steaming, actually bubbling – dump all the biscuit pieces in. Stir them around just enough to get them all wet.
Put the lid on, turn it down to medium-low, and set a timer for fifteen minutes. Try not to lift the lid too much because the steam cooks the dumplings. I peek maybe twice the whole time.
When the timer goes off, turn off the heat and stir it gently. Then let it sit for about five minutes before you eat it. It’ll thicken up during this time and the dumplings finish cooking in the heat.
Notes
Cook the garlic and Italian seasoning for that full minute even though it seems pointless. I used to just throw everything in together but that minute makes a big difference in how it tastes at the end.
Keep extra chicken broth around because sometimes the soup gets too thick after the dumplings cook. Depends on what brand of biscuits you use – some soak up more liquid than others. Just pour in a little more broth if it’s too thick for your taste.
Let it sit after you turn off the heat. I know everyone’s hungry but the dumplings aren’t actually done cooking when the timer goes off. They need that five minutes of sitting in the hot soup to finish up, and the whole thing thickens during this time too.
Buy lean ground beef or you’ll have to drain off a bunch of grease before you add the liquids. I use the 90/10 stuff because it’s not that much more expensive and it saves me from having to deal with grease.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Category: Main Dish
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American