There were VERY few family gatherings at my Granny's house that didn't include a pot of chicken and dumplings. I remember being in Michigan, one year for Christmas....Y1 was just turned 2...so that would have been 1999...and I told Granny how much I was looking forward to the dumplings. Imagine my shock when she told me that she wasn't fixing dumplings. They had decided it would be easier to just to big pans of lasagna, salad and bread. I don't remember exactly what I said or how long I pouted, but Christmas Day, there was a pot of dumplings on the stove! I had yet to master the art of making dumplings like she did and the thought of being in her house and not having them was just too much!
Granny died in October 2002. We traveled from SMALLtown, GA for the services. On the way back, we stopped at Cr*cker B*rrel for supper. I ordered their chicken and dumplings and upon the first bite proceeded to have a come apart...a melt down...a full on crying jag! Why? The dumplings tasted JUST like Granny's. Scared our waitress half to death! Eric explained...without me having to say a word to him about why I was crying...and she was as sweet as she could be. I giggle about it now...seriously...crying over a plate of food! Pretty ridiculous, really, but isn't it funny how our emotions and memories are so integrated into our senses?
Making the dumplings was not an easy experiment. Granny really didn't have a recipe. She never used one to make them. Probably because she'd been making them all her life and didn't need the recipe anymore...if there ever was one. A handful of this, a pinch of that...it was a maddening process. Then one day, Mama told me how to do it. I was talking about how I'd try to make them and what all I had used and how they'd just fallen apart in the pot. I was flabbergasted that she knew how Granny made the dumplings, but never mentioned it! Even after knowing Granny's method, it still took some time to get the technique but I think I've just about got it mastered.
3 cups flour
6 eggs
pinch or two of salt
1-2 pounds cooked and shredded chicken
chicken broth/stock
*The easiest way to cook the chicken is by putting it in the crock pot. Keep it covered with water and it will cook down to where it is falling apart and you don't have to shred it. If you use skin-on chicken, remove the skin before putting it in the pot. If using bone-in chicken, carefully remove all bones/cartilage from pot. Pour broth into a large stove-top pot. Bring to full boil.
*Pour flour into bowl, digging a well in the center of it. Into the well, crack the eggs. Add salt. Work the flour and eggs together. If dough is too sticky, add additional flour by the tablespoon. Once dough is easy to handle, turn out onto clean, well floured surface.
*Divide dough in half. Roll out dough. How thin, how thick is strictly up to you...Granny's were always just thick enough that the edges would curl. Cut dough into strips using a serrated knife or a pizza cutter. Repeat with second ball of dough.
*Drop dumplings into boiling broth/stock. Add more liquid to keep dumplings covered. Cook until tender and broth has begun to thicken. Add chicken and cook until chicken is heated through. Serve with cole slaw and green beans....or right by themselves.
Granny died in October 2002. We traveled from SMALLtown, GA for the services. On the way back, we stopped at Cr*cker B*rrel for supper. I ordered their chicken and dumplings and upon the first bite proceeded to have a come apart...a melt down...a full on crying jag! Why? The dumplings tasted JUST like Granny's. Scared our waitress half to death! Eric explained...without me having to say a word to him about why I was crying...and she was as sweet as she could be. I giggle about it now...seriously...crying over a plate of food! Pretty ridiculous, really, but isn't it funny how our emotions and memories are so integrated into our senses?
Making the dumplings was not an easy experiment. Granny really didn't have a recipe. She never used one to make them. Probably because she'd been making them all her life and didn't need the recipe anymore...if there ever was one. A handful of this, a pinch of that...it was a maddening process. Then one day, Mama told me how to do it. I was talking about how I'd try to make them and what all I had used and how they'd just fallen apart in the pot. I was flabbergasted that she knew how Granny made the dumplings, but never mentioned it! Even after knowing Granny's method, it still took some time to get the technique but I think I've just about got it mastered.
3 cups flour
6 eggs
pinch or two of salt
1-2 pounds cooked and shredded chicken
chicken broth/stock
*The easiest way to cook the chicken is by putting it in the crock pot. Keep it covered with water and it will cook down to where it is falling apart and you don't have to shred it. If you use skin-on chicken, remove the skin before putting it in the pot. If using bone-in chicken, carefully remove all bones/cartilage from pot. Pour broth into a large stove-top pot. Bring to full boil.
*Pour flour into bowl, digging a well in the center of it. Into the well, crack the eggs. Add salt. Work the flour and eggs together. If dough is too sticky, add additional flour by the tablespoon. Once dough is easy to handle, turn out onto clean, well floured surface.
*Divide dough in half. Roll out dough. How thin, how thick is strictly up to you...Granny's were always just thick enough that the edges would curl. Cut dough into strips using a serrated knife or a pizza cutter. Repeat with second ball of dough.
*Drop dumplings into boiling broth/stock. Add more liquid to keep dumplings covered. Cook until tender and broth has begun to thicken. Add chicken and cook until chicken is heated through. Serve with cole slaw and green beans....or right by themselves.
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