Homemade chicken dumplings

Chicken and dumplings is a soup that consists of a chicken cooked in water, with the resulting chicken broth being homemade chicken dumplings to cook the dumplings by boiling. Various commercial preparations of chicken and dumplings are available, including canned and frozen versions of the prepared dish. Frozen raw dumplings, typically very flat strips about 1×4 inches, can be cooked in any broth.

Chicken and dumpling soup at Nicoll’s Cafe in Pine City, Minnesota. A variant known as “chicken and pastry” or simply “chicken pastry” features wide, flat noodles rolled from biscuit dough. Where such a distinction is made, it is sometimes considered a different dish from “chicken and dumplings”, which is known for small balls of dough rather than flat strips. In the Appalachian region of the United States, this preparation is called chicken and slicks. Pennsylvania Dutch bott boi is a soup popular in central and southeastern Pennsylvania, also called chicken and dumplings in the American south.

Created to use up leftovers, Pennsylvania Dutch pot pie developed from the more widespread baked variety. Its characteristic noodles were added as a staple of the Pennsylvania Dutch and English diets. Bott boi is a soup of thick square-cut dough boiled in chicken broth. Turkey or other poultry can be substituted for the chicken. Potatoes and various vegetables may be added, and the broth can also be seasoned with saffron.