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Grandma's Chicken and Dumplings

This recipe dates back over 100 years and maybe longer. This was my grandmother’s recipe and I believe that she got it from her mother. I used to eat this at my Grandmother Neel's house when I used to visit every summer down on the farm in Northeastern OK. One of my earliest memories is my mother making this and Oh how I loved it! My kids love it too. I was never good at making it. My daughter can make it but still does not quite taste like what Mama used to make. My grandmother was a Cherokee Indian and it is believed that this chicken recipe may have originated before the Cherokees were forced to move west. This recipe was passed word of mouth down from generation to generation and my mother, Jewell Neel Van Osdol, wrote it down for me Nov. 25, 1977. My Grandmother, Willora Cleora Josephine Bee Neel, passed away in 1975 and my mother, Jewell Neel Van Osdol, did the same in 2002 at the age of 91. My grand mother, mother, myself and my daughter all belong to the western band of the Cherokee tribe. 

READ THE FOLLOWING RECIPE THROUGH
BEFORE MAKING IT

Grandma's Chicken and Dumplings

Chicken and wide noodle dumplings (recipe for dumplings below)

Stew a fat chicken with a little salt, until done be sure to cook the chicken in plenty of water. When chicken is done take out 1 ½ cups broth to make your dumplings with. Set broth aside to cool.

Take the bones out of the chicken. Make sure no bones are left for someone could choke on a small bone.

There is no set amount of flour to use for this is an old recipe and they did not have set amounts in the old days. Take flour and make a small mound of it, on a bread board or in a bowl. Put a hole in the top of the mound like a hole in a volcano. Pour in the cool chicken broth with a little salt in the hole and stir with a fork until dough holds together. DO NOT OVERWORK THE DOUGH OR THE DUMPLINGS WILL BE TOUGH. Then roll out dough like for a piecrust. Cut the dough into wide strips. Repeat making the dumplings till you have the amount of dumplings that you desire.

Drop them into the boiling broth that was left in the pot after the chicken has been removed and boned. When your dumplings  are done, about 20 minutes later, add the boned chicken and one-pint half and half. Turn your fire off and let it set a little while. You do not have to use all the chicken with the dumplings if you do not want that much chicken. You can add a little pepper to the broth as you drop in the dumplings into the boiling broth. Getting this recipe right takes practice. 

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Visitor Comments:  "I just want to thank you for your website and the obvious work that it has taken. I thank you especially for the Chicken and Dumpling recipe. Maybe now I will be able to make it the way my husband remembers!"

"This is the first time I have ever seen a recipe that matched what I learned as a child from my Arkansas mom and grandmothers. To me this is the ONLY way to make a tasty tender dumpling. Thanks!"

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