Chicken and dumplings are a southern staple. I have heard fairy tales of my grandmother’s famed chicken and dumplings that were as light as air since I was a child. Of course, no one ever wrote the recipe down or taught the next generation to make the angelic dumplings. So, here I am almost seventy years later trying to recreate the flavors of my mother’s childhood. My mother’s mom, Ruth, made her dumplings in a “drop dumpling” style that was more akin to a biscuit floating on top of broth rather than a traditional southern dumpling. My mother’s paternal grandmother, lovingly known as Mama Cammie, made a completely different style of dumpling that was rolled out into thin strips with, presumably, lard. This is the style of dumpling that my Aunt Elva has been making at our family Christmas gatherings in Carthage, Mississippi for years. I’ve asked for her recipe and even watched her roll the dumplings, wearing eight-inch heels as if Carrie Bradshaw had entered the kitchen, but my attempts to replicate her chicken and dumplings have never yielded the same result.
I am convinced chicken (or hen) and dumplings requires a sprinkling of love to get the flavor just right. Whether that love comes from a quilt-making great grandmother, an aunt from Texas, or a college friend’s toddler, the results will have an umami unobtainable with conventional kitchen techniques. For those wondering, the toddler equivalent of sprinkling love is dumping large volumes of baking soda into the broth. I learned my lesson not to leave bowls of seasonings in the vicinity of a broth when using the kitchen helper. But the good news is that the hen broth is very forgiving and will taste just fine, even when minor (or major) alterations/substitutions are made.
So why not a chicken? The hen was a happy, and tasty, mistake. Chicken broth was my go-to until four Christmases ago when I asked my father to go to the grocery store and bring me a whole chicken. He arrived with a hen. At first, I figured he had made a mistake and was oh-so-wrongfully annoyed with my misshapen chicken. “But daughter, they were completely sold out of chickens at the Kroger,” he explained. Little did I know that hens are only sold around Thanksgiving and Christmas, and grocery stores likely stock fewer whole chickens as a result. I would just have to make do.
As my mom submerged the hen in water, I covered it with onions, carrots, leeks, celery, and herbs. While she mumbled something about hens usually being tougher birds and not used for cooking, sheer magic was happening in that pot as the broth simmered. A few hours later, our minds were all blown by the most soulful broth we had ever tasted. The depth of flavor was unlike any chicken broth I had tasted before. Compared to this rich, golden, fat laced broth, chicken broth seemed watered down and flat. Sometimes, it really is better to be lucky than smart. So, thank you dad for bringing home the hen.
Hen and Dumplings
- Total Time: 7 hours
- Yield: 12 bowls 1x
Description
I am convinced chicken (or hen) and dumplings requires a sprinkling of love to get the flavor just right. Whether that love comes from a quilt-making great grandmother, an aunt from Texas, or a college friend’s toddler, the results will have an umami unobtainable with conventional kitchen techniques.
Ingredients
Broth
- 1 hen
- 2 medium onions roughly chopped (about 2 cups)
- 3 carrots, roughly chopped (about 1 cup)
- 3 stalks celery, roughly chopped (about 1 cup)
- 4 cups leeks, roughly chopped
- 6 sprigs parsley
- 6 sprigs thyme
- 1 tsp black peppercorns
- 2 bay leaves
- 4–5 quarts of water
Dumplings
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/8 tsp pepper
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
- 3 tbs butter, melted
Assembly
- 5 Tbs butter
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 quarts hen broth
- 1–quart shredded hen meat
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1 Tbs chives, chopped
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- First make the broth: Place hen in a large stock pot. Add all other ingredients to the pot and cover with water. Bring to a low boil and then reduce heat to simmer. Skim off any foam or solidified fat that floats to the top. Cook until the meat falls off the bone…usually minimum of 5-6 hours. After you have removed the hen from the broth, strain the broth. You will have about 4 quarts broth and 2 quarts of hen meat.
- Next make the dumpling dough: Mix the dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Stir in the buttermilk and butter with a fork. Stir until just combined. If you over mix the batter, then the dumplings will be too dense.
- Now make the hen and dumplings: In a large stock pot or dutch oven, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the flour and stir constantly for 3-5 minutes until golden (but not light brown). You want to have the color of blonde roux.
- Slowly pour in the hen broth while stirring constantly. It will initially for some lumps but just keep stirring and the lumps will disappear. I like to use a whisk for this part to help break the lumps up as you slowly add the broth. Add the hen meat (reserved from making the broth). Bring to a low boil.
- Add the heavy cream and season with salt and pepper. It is important to ensure you like the salt and pepper at this point because after you add the dumplings, you will not be able to easily adjust the seasoning without possibly breaking up the dumplings. Drop the dumplings on top of the broth using a cookie scooper or a spoon. Cover and cook for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, uncover and continue to cook for another 5-10 minutes or until the dumplings are cooked through. Garnish with chives and additional fresh grated pepper.
Notes
I like to cook this broth over two days and let the bones sit in the broth overnight to get more flavor out of them. I’ll start the broth the day before I want to eat the dumplings and cook it for about 3 hours. Then let it sit overnight in the refrigerator and get it back out the next day and cook another 3 hours before deboning the hen.
- Prep Time: 1 hour
- Cook Time: 6 hours
- Category: Dinner
- Cuisine: Southern
Keywords: Comfort food, Southern classics, Chicken and Dumplings