Mother's Old-Fashioned Homemade Chicken and Dumplings
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Yield: Makes 8 to 10 servings.
Shirley Wollard Woodlock learned to make homemade chicken and dumplings the old-fashioned way from watching her mother, Jennie Wollard Nunn. "Hers were made to perfection," recalls Shirley. "She would always say, 'Don't forget the bay leaves and the pepper.'" Now Shirley always makes her mother's chicken and dumplings to bring to Wollard family reunions. The recipe was passed down from Shirley's grandmother.
Ingredients:
1 whole fryer chicken or hen
4 to 5 bay leaves
salt and pepper, to taste
4 to 6 tablespoons butter
pepper, to taste
Dumplings:
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup oil
3/4 cup water
2 small eggs
3 cups flour
Instructions:
Wash the chicken and place into a large Dutch oven. Cover well with plenty of water and add bay leaves. Add salt and pepper, and the butter (the more butter, the richer the dish). Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, and cook, uncovered, until the chicken is well done, about 1 hour.
Remove the chicken from the broth. Discard the bay leaves. When the chicken has cooled, remove the meat from the bone and return the deboned chicken to the broth. About 1/2 to 3/4 pot of broth should remain.
For dumplings: In a large bowl, mix together the salt, oil, water, and eggs. Slowly add the flour to the mixture, blending it constantly with a fork. Stir only long enough to mix the dough.
Turn the dough out onto a floured board. Pinch the dough in half, and roll out until thin, about 1/4 inch. Slice the dough into 1/2-inch-wide strips, and cross-slice into pieces 4 to 8 inches long, for ease in handling.
Bring the broth and chicken back to a boil, and pepper well to taste. Drop the dumpling strips into the boiling stock. Boil approximately 20 minutes, uncovered, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking, until the dumplings are done (they'll be puffy). Most of the broth will be absorbed. Serve with red pinto beans and corn bread.
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This is too elaborate to be titled
Mother’s Old Fashioned.” I am 50 and am
still using my great grandmother’s
recipe, which is much simpler.
I found this recipe a good substitute for my great-grand dad’s recipe (I am 71), which used lard (and later shortening) for the dumping dough and a good fat home grown hen needed no additional butter in the broth. This recipe took much less time to make without sacrificing too much of the flavor or texture of our family recipe. A keeper.
This one is quite similar to the one I”ve been using for years.
This was cooked in a crockpot all day.I had to substitute a few ingredients but this was a hit with the guys. I added 1/2 t of rosemary, 1T parsley along with the bay leaves, and also chunks of carrots. The broth was a little thin so I mixed in 3/4 cup of instant potatoes.I used instant biscuit mix and next time I won’t. It was very good!
My mother used lard instead of oil and just before serving used a small can of milk (or cream) and poured it into dumplings, and then sprinkled with black pepper. So creamy and good. That is how my grandfather taught her to make them. She dropped them slowly into the bubbling juice, so they did not stick together.
I found this recipe a few years ago in the Almanac and gave it a try. It turned out so good that I am constantly asked for the recipe. This is a good old fashioned dish which requires lots of cornbread for crumbling in and sopping the plate clean.
If you like chicken and dumplings, this is the best I have ever had…and I am very picky!
Oh my … what great memories. I’m from a Pennsylvania Dutch family, on my Dad’s side, and these were the BEST eats growing up! Our dumplings were peppery, and the chicken was sometimes substituted with a hambone (therefore Hambone Potpie), another of us kids favorites.
This was good, but the dumplings were very heavy.
Great.
Almost as good as Cracker Barrel’s.
I agree – You can’t beat Cracker Barrel’s chicken and dumplings. They have a great flavor and texture.
However, I don’t add bay leaves to my dumplings and I do use Crisco – lard was definitely the tastiest back in the day. No carrots or other stuff. A big fat hen is best – no butter needed as has already been noted. Different ingredients are ok if they are liked but it doesn’t add up to our “old fashioned chicken and dumplings”.
I just want to thank you. I remember my mom making this and it was never written down, but you just gave it back. Thanks.
My mom and I always go to Cracker Barrel to get chicken and dumplings. Now we won’t have to. This recipe is very easy to make and tastes delicious.
I would make it again but would add carrots, celery and onion.
Just like my grammy makes!!!
This recipe reminds me of my grandmother’s specialty! It was very easy to prepare and delicious! I varied it a bit to use the turkey that I made yesterday. We saved and used the white and dark meat as well as the “drippings”…It was fantastic! Thank you for this perfect dumpling recipe!
I would tweak this recipe a bit. I like carrot, onions, celery and lots of Italian parsley in it. Also, I found a simpler idea, instead of making the dumplings, I use Kluski Frozen Noodles in mine. They are wide & heavy like homemade
I liked this recipe but prefer my own dumpling mix of 2 cups flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt, and some parsley – rolled the same way. I add thyme, sage and parsley along with the bay leaves and add a few white potatoes (pared and diced) and cook everything about 25 minutes longer. Heavy dumplings and a stew like broth. This was passed from a Quaker family.
The taste was great but the dumplings were hard and lumpy.
Very similar to what I, my Mom and my Mamaw have made for years but instead of the water, we use our broth.
I love this recipe. It’s almost exactly like my mom and nannies. Of course we never had bay leaves and they used lard for the dumplings. I still make it that way and of course vegetables were NEVER allowed in the chicken and dumplings.
Great with fried corn bread. Almost as good as my Mom’s and Grandma’s used to be.
There’s a much simpler way to make the dumplings. Don’t mix the dough quite as dry, and instead of rolling it out, drop it into the broth using a teaspoon or a very small scoop. The dumplings are fluffier and it doesn’t take nearly as long.
I use the fat from hen instead of oil. Much more flavor. I also add stalks of celery when cooking the chicken. A layer of stalks under most meat acts like a cooking rack and gives a lot of flavor.
My father makes this also and when making the dumplings he covers the pot for 10 minutes and then uncovered for 10 minutes, thus making the dumplings huge!!!
I would call these noodles as it is not what I remember gumplings being like when I was a kid. My mom made chicken and dumplings and they were fluffy mounds of a bready like substance. Times sure have changed if this is what they call dumplings nowadays.
Reminds me of my childhood except our beloved cook would put the head and feet(skinned first) in the broth. My brother Pat said the prize was when you dipped out a foot with a dumpling in it! The recipe sounds like Aunt Senie’s dumplings and we all looked forward to our meal.
I prefer the heavy flat dumplings over the big fluffy balls full of air. The flats are more like what my grandmother made. She knew that I loved dumplings and pastas over any other accompaniment. This recipe is delicious, however, I do use fewer bay leaves.
This is very close to what my grandmom and mom made – love it! We always, always rolled out and cut the dumplings . . . like them so much better than just doing spoonfuls. Only difference is we always cube up a couple of potatoes to thicken up the soup.
I’m with Ms. Beuleh, the “dumplings” I always knew were fluffy, bready and light, either big ones floating on top, like my New England grandmother’s, or smaller round ones from my aunt-in-law from southwest Virginia. I always ask now if I order them at a family-style restaurant, just so I can get prepared. One trick my mom had was to lay a large kitchen towel over the pot, then the lid, after putting the dumplings in.
great recipe, but as others mentioned carrots, celery, parsley and a little cream or milk in the broth goes well and if having chicken should always have a little tyme.