And SE offers an in-depth history on the dish here - if only I’d found this article hours earlier!Īn essay from a north Louisiana native says: “Chicken and dumplings is a delicious meal that’s unlikely to win many hearts on Instagram.”Īlton Brown makes both dropped and rolled dumplings. This recipe from Serious Eats is of interest. If you watch the associated Cook’s Country video, watch to the end to see a thicker consistency versus what is shown earlier in the clip. The Splendid Table offers Chicken and Dumplings inspired by Edna Lewis. New Orleans’ Times-Picayune offers a recipe for Chicken and Slicks originating in north Louisiana.Ĭook’s Country suggests cooking dumplings or “slicks” in unthickened broth to prevent them from breaking apart. This new-to-me term led to additional resources: A recipe from Texas Monthly introduced me to the term slick dumpling. If you are a lucky southerner, you also have a copy of your mama’s handwritten recipe telling you to “strain the stock thru an old diaper or cheesecloth.” Chicken & SlicksĪt this point, I turned back to the internet to dig a little deeper. Then they reminisced about coming home from school to find our mother’s dumplings rolled out on the counter ready to be cooked for dinner. They described the diner version exactly as I remembered: chicken with chewy rectangular dumplings, no vegetables, and hearty enough to be served on a plate and eaten with a fork. Next, I called a sibling to ask what they remembered about the dish growing up and what version they makes. North Louisiana food traditions are actually more closely related to those of other southern states versus South Louisiana, but John Folse’s Encyclopedia of Cajun & Creole Cuisine includes a classic recipe with rolled flat dumplings.įinally, a basic recipe for Old-Fashioned Chicken and Dumplings turned up in a newer Junior League of Tallahassee cookbook, Thymes Remembered.
At cafes and restaurants in and around Shreveport, chicken and dumplings are usually a daily special.” “It’s not a gumbo, it’s not a stew but people in north Louisiana adore it. And Emeril’s brief recipe headnote gave some insight into why those of us from north Louisiana fondly remember the simple dish: Tucked inside with his recipe for dropped dumplings were my notes on rolling dumplings. My copy of The Joy of Cooking has an entry for Chicken and Dumplings that refers to two separate recipes - chicken fricassee and dumplings - but the dumplings were balled, so I moved on.Įmeril’s Louisiana Real & Rustic showed more promise. The 1980’s Colorful Louisiana Cuisine in Black and White by Bibby Tate and Ethel Dixon includes a recipe with drop dumplings. The dish is even absent from southern cookbooks published in the 1960’s and 70’s, like Louisiana Entertains and A Cook’s Tour. Older regional Louisiana cookbooks seemed like a logical place to start, but surprisingly most don’t include chicken and dumpling recipes. And the recipes called for puffy drop dumplings versus flat cut dumplings.Īccording to Wikipedia, soupy versions of the dish are popular in the Midwest.Īccording to Serious Eats, different styles of dumplings are a noted difference in Northern and Southern dishes.Īt this point, I was curious enough to pull out the old cookbooks.
However the recipes that surfaced were brothy soups versus a thicker gravy or sauce. I was looking for flat rolled dumplings and a thickened sauce. But when I jumped online to remind myself of ingredient ratios, the recipes that surfaced bore little resemblance to the dish I ate as a child. Dropped Dumplingsĭumplings are easier to make than biscuits. Would my nearly-grown Texan children still have an appreciation for the beloved southern dish? For the sake of cultural preservation, I vowed to bring the recipe back into rotation. As an adult, I’m positive I would choose my mother’s dumplings over the gooey diner version, but Murrell’s no longer exists, so this theory can’t be tested.Īfter seeing the soupy-squashy NYT Cooking recipe, mild panic set in when I realized it had been ages since I last made chicken and dumplings. My mother also made the dish, but whenever possible I’d request a plate of Murrell’s chicken & dumplings and a slice of their chocolate icebox pie. Nostalgia in the KitchenĪs a child, one of my ultimate comfort foods was Chicken and Dumplings from a local 24-hour diner, Murrell’s. Perhaps northerners eat soupy squash with dumplings regularly, but traditional Southern Chicken and Dumplings are what you should be making. When The New York Times published a recipe for “Quick Chicken and Dumplings,” they described the dish as a soup and suggested butternut squash as an ingredient.
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