Southern Style Chicken and Dumplings

Comfort food.  Recipes-- yes I do use recipes sometimes.  Family.  Easy.  Homemade.

How to describe chicken and dumplings?  Well, delicious for one.

So here I am posting again, this time an old family recipe from my aunt, born and raised in Arkansas, that I just have to share with you.  In our recipe box, I have this recipe, worn, typed on a typewriter (who even uses those anymore???), and clearly loved.

Now I must give you a disclaimer: if you are looking for biscuit style dumplings, this post isn't for you.  But if you are looking for melt in your mouth, soaked up the chicken broth, down home drop in the soup dumplings, then you can't go wrong.

So, here goes:



First, boil a chicken carcass for about an hour, covered with water, and drain, retaining the broth and the carcass.  I like to remove as much meat as I can before I boil so that I have more flavorful meat to add back in later.  Put the broth back on the stove, add the chicken meat back in, and bring to a simmer.  Season your broth, but if you will be serving with seasoned salt (which is divine!), under salt you soup a bit.

While you are waiting, mix up your dumpling dough in a bowl:

2 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
dash pepper
2/3 cup milk
2 cups flour

It WILL be gooey and sticky!

Now on a well floured surface (I flour parchment paper for easy clean-up), roll out your dough 1/4 inch thick.

Using a pizza roller or knife, cut in strips 1.5 by 1 inch.  Add to your chicken and broth, slightly stretching as you add, and cook a few minutes, until done and floating.  Do not despair if some of the dumplings won't come off the board.  This dough is so sticky, sometimes, it just happens.

Serve and enjoy!  I always like to make a bright salad or vegetable as a side.