Cracker Barrel Dumplings Recipes

Steps:

• 1. Mix the flour, baking powder, salt, milk, and oil, blending well, and turn out on to a floured surface. Knead four or five times. Roll out dough to 1/8-inch thick and cut into 1 x 1 1/2-inch dumplings.
• 2. In a large saucepan, combine the water and bouillon cubes/soup base. Boil until the bouillon cubes/soup base dissolve. Cook the dumplings until just about done; dumplings are done when they float up towards the top of the pot. Use a strainer to remove them to a bowl and set aside. Reserve the cooking liquid.
• 3. While the dumplings are cooking, you can start to prepare the sauce. Melt the butter in medium saucepan. Add salt and flour; stir until thick. Mix the sugar with the milk and add to flour mixture a little at a time, stirring constantly with a whisk until thick and smooth. Remove from heat. Add the cooked dumplings to the sauce.
• 4. Reserve 3/4-1 cup of the cooking liquid and stir gently into the sauce and dumplings. Return to low heat and simmer until blended. If the sauce seems too thick, gently stir in a little more cooking liquid. Add pepper to taste.

Steps:

• Place chicken and 1 pinch salt in a large pot; cover with water. Bring to a boil, skimming any scum off the surface with a slotted spoon. Add lemon, celery, onion, and carrots. Simmer broth over medium heat until chicken starts to fall off the bone, about 1 hour.
• Discard lemon. Remove chicken from the pot; let cool.
• Place flour, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Make a well in the center. Ladle in 2 to 3 scoops of hot broth. Mix in flour with a spoon until dough comes together into a ball.
• Turn dough out onto a floured surface. Knead carefully until smooth. Roll out into a large rectangle; cut into small rectangular dumplings.
• Drop dumplings one at a time into the simmering broth. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 30 minutes.
• Bone chicken and chop into pieces. Add to the pot; cook until heated through, about 5 minutes.

Steps:

• In a bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients with a fork or pastry blender. Stir in the milk, mixing with a fork until the dough forms a ball. Heavily flour a work surface. You'll need a rolling pin and something to cut the dumplings with. I like to use a pizza cutter. I also like to use a small spatula to lift the dumplings off the cutting surface. Roll the dough out thin with a heavily floured rolling pin. Dip your cutter in flour and cut the dumplings in squares about 2x2-inches each. It's okay for them not to be exact. Just eye ball it. Some will be bigger, some smaller, and some might be shaped funny. Use the floured spatula to put them on a heavily floured plate. Just keep flouring between the layers of dumplings. To cook them, bring the broth to a boil. Drop the dumplings in one at a time, stirring while you add them. The extra flour on them will help thicken the broth. Cook them for about 15 to 20 minutes or until they don't taste doughy. Add the cooked chicken to the pot and serve.

Steps:

• Boil 3 quarts water in a large pot.
• Add chicken, 1 t salt, onion, celery, garlic, bay leaf and parsley and simmer for 2 hours.
• The liquid will reduce by 1/3.
• When chicken is cooked, remove it and set aside.
• Strain stock and throw away everything but the stock.
• Put 6 cups of the stock back into the pot. (Leftover stock can be frozen.)
• Add the pepper, 1/2 t salt and lemon juice and reheat while you mix dumplings.
• For dumplings, mix flour, baking powder, 1-1/4 t salt and milk in a medium bowl.
• Stir until smooth, then let dough rest for 5-10 minutes.
• Roll dough onto a floured surface to about 1/2 inch thickness. (Handle the dough as little as possible for good dumplings).
• Cut the dough into 1/2 inch squares (I use a pizza cutter) and drop each square into the simmering stock.
• Use all of the dough.
• The dumplings will first swell and then slowly shrink as they partially dissolve to thicken the stock into a white gravy.
• Simmer for 20 to 30 minutes until thick.
• Stir often.
• While the stock is thickening, the chicken will have cooled.
• Tear all the meat from the bones and remove the skin.
• Cut chicken into bite sized pieces and drop them into the pot.
• Cook for another 5 to 10 minutes, but stir carefully so you don't break the chicken up.
• When the gravy has reached the desired consistency, ladle four portions onto plates and serve hot.
• (Very good over mashed potatoes.).