Aunt Max's Old Fashioned Homemade Chicken and Dumplings + The secret to tender dumplings

9:30 PM
Homemade Chicken and Dumplings will bring back memories of dinner at Granny's.  These are the real deal, old fashioned tender dumplings made from scratch, cooked in a rich broth from a whole chicken. I'm telling you--the real deal!  


Every time I make chicken and dumplings, I think of my Aunt making these for me when I was young. I don't ever remember her actually making them because she always had them ready to eat when we got to her house.

I do remember it was not unusual for me to want to eat them for breakfast the next morning.  I can hear Aunt Max now saying "you want to eat them for breakfast?" haha!   I think it always tickled her that I wanted to eat them for breakfast so much so that I think she would make just a little extra to have some leftover in case I would ask.


The best recipes are the ones that are tried and true from not only Grandmas but Aunts too!  My Aunt was a wonderful cook, and I treasure the memories with her and her recipe for these Old Fashioned Homemade Chicken and Dumplings she passed down to me.

Homemade recipes can be daunting, but they are well worth the effort.  With these dumplings, they are easy to mix up, roll out, place them in the broth, but the most laborious task is waiting for them to cook 1 hour.  This is the where all the magic happens.  Simmer them in the rich broth and stir them occasionally and keep the lid on them.

These chicken and dumplings are so good I hope you get to make some real soon.  Enjoy!




Homemade Chicken and Dumplings 
Recipe Source Maxine Boone

Ingredients:  Chicken
    1 whole chicken
    6-8 cups water
    1 tablespoon salt
    2 teaspoons coarse black pepper
Ingredients: Dumplings
    1 whole egg
    2 egg yolks
    1 cup milk
    2 cups flour (or enough to form a dough)
Ingredients: Cooking Chicken and Dumplings
    1/2 cup butter, diced
    2-3 cups milk
    1 teaspoon salt and
    1 teaspoon coarse pepper
Directions:  Chicken
Wash chicken thoroughly, inside and out, under cold running water. Drain well. Place chicken in a large stockpot; add water, salt, and pepper making sure water is a 1 inch above the chicken. Bring to a boil; reduce heat; simmer 1 1/2 hours or until chicken is done with meat coming off the bone easily.

Remove chicken from broth and set aside to cool to the touch. Remove meat from the bones discarding the skin and cartilage from the meat. Reserve the broth.

Directions: Dumplings
In a large bowl, beat whole egg and egg yolks together with milk. Add salt and 1 cup flour, stir and then keep adding flour 1/2 cup at a time until the dough comes together in a dough ball. Roll dough on floured surface to 1/8 inch deep. Cut into 1-inch strips. (sometimes I cut them into 2-inch squares.)

Directions: Cooking Chicken and Dumplings
Bring chicken broth to a full boil. Drop strips of dough into boiling broth one at a time. Stirring to keep dough separate. After all the dough has been added to the broth add the chicken, butter and 2 cups milk. Put the lid on the pot and simmer for 1 hour and the dumplings are tender. (This is the secret to tender dumpling.)  Stir occasionally to keep dumplings from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Add salt and pepper to taste and more milk if needed.

Cook's Note:  The secret to tender dumplings is to let them simmer for 1 hour.  My family is impatient sometimes, and we dig in too early.  hehe!
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Kay Little
Kay Little

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