Food & Drink: Dear Dale

Dumplings just as good as grandma's

In some special cafés across Central Texas, they roll or pinch or spoon their dumplings from scratch, just the way you remember

By Dale Rice
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Like macaroni and cheese, chicken and dumplings is one of those old-fashioned dishes that evokes images of home cooking and comfort.

But how many cooks in our fast-paced era take the time to roll dumplings by hand — especially after simmering chicken to make a flavorful broth and pulling the meat off the bones to provide bite-sized chunks? Not many, I bet.

Two hours invested in something that "ordinary" might seem like a waste of time to devotees of fine cuisine who are honing their sautéing skills or working to perfect a cabernet sauvignon reduction sauce.

But those of us who love chicken and dumplings know differently; it's not a squandering of kitchen skills to make a tasty dish of another era. We savor the simplicity of chicken mingling with light dumplings in a creamy broth and long for dumplings made by hand from flour, salt, shortening, baking powder and milk, rather than those that originate with a box of Bisquick.

That's why a recent letter to the Dear Dale column asking for the names of restaurants that make chicken and dumplings from scratch drew dozens of responses from readers who still seek the flavor of grandma's kitchen (and many who wanted a good recipe as well).

Delicious made-from-scratch dumplings can be found as a daily lunch special at places as diverse as Arkie's Grill (every Tuesday), Ben's Long Branch Barbecue (every Wednesday) and Charlie's Steak House in Pflugerville (the third Thursday of every month). All offer rolled-style dumplings, which resemble a sort of thick, fluffy noodle, although the size and density varies from place to place.

At Arkie's, Eddie Marshall, who has worked at the grill in far East Austin for 45 years, starts on the dough early each Tuesday morning. He rolls and cuts hundreds of dumplings to cook with chicken for one of Arkie's favorite lunch specials for that day.

For more places to find dumplings, as well as a discussion of dumpling types and a recipe, read on. If your grandma made great chicken and dumplings (or you wish she did), you'll be hankering for a plateful by the time you finish.

It's all in how you handle that dough

Here are three main variations on the dumplings paired with chicken to form the old-fashioned dish:

Rolled: The cook flattens the dough with a rolling pin and cuts it into strips before dropping the dumplings in the simmering broth.

Spooned: The cook uses a spoon to form nuggets of dough (sometimes as small as a pecan, sometimes as large as an orange) that are then dropped in the simmering broth.

Pinched: Holding a hunk of dough in one hand, the cook squeezes it, allowing a portion to extrude between thumb and index finger. That piece is then pinched off and dropped in the simmering broth.

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Start your chicken and dumplings run now

Here is a sampling of the more than 50 responses to the request for a restaurant that serves made-from-scratch chicken and dumplings:

Dear Dale,
Go to the City Cafe in Elgin on a Tuesday for delicious old-fashioned chicken and dumplings. We discovered this bit of info and have gone several times for lunch. Instead of the whole buffet, we order a bowl of chicken and dumplings with cornbread. Absolutely out of this world!
— Joann Traver

Dear Dale,
I also crave those handmade chicken and dumplings my mom used to make me back in Tennessee. Luckily, I have the recipe. However, there are times when I would rather let someone else do the cooking!

I know it's not a locally owned restaurant, but I have found that the Cracker Barrel can often satisfy my craving. They have hand-pulled white meat chicken, rolled dough dumplings, and the consistency is creamy . . . not brothy.
— Kerry Gray

Dear Dale,
I found a great place that serves chicken and dumplings the old-fashioned way. It's called Granny's Kitchen on Pecan Street in Pflugerville. It's one of their daily specials, so you can call ahead to make sure it's the special for the day you'll be there.
— Marie

Dear Dale,
One of the best places to get homemade dumplings like you are describing in your column is Shady Oaks on Texas 71 just before you get to Texas 21 (on your way to Bastrop). Another good place for homemade chicken and dumplings is Arkie's on East Cesar Chavez St. It is on their menu one day a week.
— Janet Elman

Dear Dale,
The best ones I've had (and my friends all call me the restaurant queen) are at Ben's Long Branch on 11th Street just east of Interstate 35 on Wednesday (soul food day) and at Maxine's on East 12th Street. Her menu changes weekly.
- Betsy Moore

Dear Dale,
In Pflugerville, the Pecan Street Deli on Pecan Street has the best. The dumplings are made from scratch by hand. They are not made every day of the week, so I have to call and find out when they will be made. That is a shame, but they are awesome.
— Hazel C. Sherrod

Dear Dale,
Styles of dumplings, believe it or not, have been of considerable interest to me, so I have gathered quite a bit of information on them over the years.

The rolled-out and cut into strips dumpling with no leavening is not so much an "old-fashioned" dumpling as it is a particular style that is prevalent across the Southeast. My granny was from Alabama, and she made the best chicken and dumplings ever! When I came to Texas 21 years ago, I found the leavened, dropped from a spoon style of dumplings to be prevalent here.

My granny would boil the leftover country ham and hambone and make dumplings with that — YUM!
— Cathy Ledbetter

Dear Dale,
The best homemade chicken and dumplings are served as the daily special every Thursday at the Texan Cafe and Debbie's Pies Etc. in Hutto. The dough is hand-pinched and is wonderful, as is everything else at the Texan Cafe.
— Wayne Jacobs

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Have the time? Make dumplings yourself

Dear Dale,
This recipe was my mother's and it is excellent.- Terre Thomas

Terre,
I've elaborated a bit for those who aren't familiar with making dumplings. I made your mother's recipe twice, and loved it. The first time I made it as listed, which produced a thin broth. The second time, I improvised to come up with a thicker base. I've included that variation at the end of the recipe. - Dale

Chicken and dumplings
1 fryer chicken
1 tsp. salt
1 quart water
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2 cups flour
2 Tbsp. shortening
3 cups milk, divided

Simmer the chicken in one quart of water with salt until tender (about one hour). Remove chicken from pot, allow it to cool enough to handle and cut chicken off bones into bite-sized pieces. Return pieces of chicken to the pot. For the dumplings, add baking powder and salt to the flour and stir to mix. Cut shortening into the flour until all lumps have disappeared. Add 1 cup of milk and stir until it comes together as a stiff dough. Roll out the dough on a well-floured surface and cut into strips 1 inch wide and 4 inches long. Bring the broth with the chicken to a simmer and drop the dumplings a few at a time into the broth and cook, with a cover on the pot, for 12 to 15 minutes. Add 2 cups of milk to the broth-chicken-dumplings mix and let it stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Variation: Use only 1 cup of milk in the broth, adding it at the same time as the pieces of chicken, bringing it to a simmer before cooking the dumplings. Add freshly ground black pepper to enhance the flavor.

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A good day for dumplings

If you love made-from-scratch chicken and dumplings (the rolled style, unless otherwise noted), here are a few places you can find them as the daily special:

TUESDAYS

• Arkie's, 4827 E. Cesar Chavez St., 385-2986
• City Cafe, 19 N. Main St., Elgin; (512) 281-3663
• The Frisco Shop, 5819 Burnet Road, 459-6279
• 2 Mama's Cafe and Bakery, 206 N. Main St., Buda; 295-4748

WEDNESDAYS

• Ben's Long Branch Barbecue, 900 E. 11th St., 477-2516
• Hoover's Cooking, 2002 Manor Road, 479-5006

BEYOND THE DAILY SPECIAL

• Monument Cafe (pinched, large dumplings), 1953 S. Austin Ave., Georgetown; (512) 930-9586. Offered weekly, but the day varies.)
• Charlie's Steak House, 15601 Vision Drive, Pflugerville, 251-9358 (The third Thursday of each month during lunch.)
• Granny's Kitchen, 101 E. Pecan St., Pflugerville; 989-6446. (Once every two weeks; the day varies.)
• Pecan Street Deli, 103-B W. Pecan St., Pflugerville; 251-0296. (A few times a year.)

drice@statesman.com; 445-3859