I remember visiting our grandparents on Sunday afternoons after church as a child. We would be overjoyed to see our beloved grandparents. I recall the savory smells wafting out of my grandma’s kitchen, especially when she prepared my favorite dish, Chicken and dumplings, which, if I may say, is the best on the planet! (I may be a little biased) My Grandma would boil a whole chicken, debone it, skin it, and put it back in broth with some key ingredients, which I will share at the end of this blog. It was delicious, by far the best I have ever eaten. My Grandma passed when I was 14, so I never got the chance to get the recipe from her. When I was so young, getting recipes from Grandma was the least of my worries. I am sure you can all relate. However, as I got older and started getting tired of eating the same food, I began to branch out and try to find recipes for the things I loved as a child. I learned how to make a whole cake (a family tradition about which I could write an entire blog) and many other dishes. I have never (until now) encountered anything remotely close to Grandma’s Chicken and Dumplings. During my part-time career as a line cook, I discovered that most chain restaurants and even some mom-and-pop places used frozen bagged soups.

Very few made their own, and none I tried even came close to Grandma’s. My wife and I attended our regular life group on Friday night, and one of my friends asked me what my favorite food was. I almost immediately answered ribeye steak with baked Korean sweet potatoes and corn on the cob prepared in the husk in the oven. I said, “What is yours?” He replied, “Chicken and dumplings with old-fashioned drop dumplings made from scratch. ”

Wow! For so long, I had forgotten that this was my childhood favorite. The wife of the friend I was speaking to was undergoing surgery that week on her neck and would be unable to cook for at least a week or two. On the way home, my wife says one of the ladies asked us to cook for our (recovering) friend the following Sunday. The next day, a Saturday, I was browsing the web looking for a good chicken and dumpling recipe. I found this recipe on Inspiredtaste.com. I made this the following Sunday, took it to our friend’s home, and had a fantastic dinner with them. Everyone raved about how good the recipe was, and I must say I agree that this meal brought me back to my childhood days at Grandma’s house.

Best Chicken and dumpling

• One whole Chicken
• 1/4 cup butter (salted or unsalted your preference)
• One clove garlic
• 12 to 14 cups water for boiling Chicken
• fresh parsley and thyme
• One onion
• Two stalks celery
• salt 3 tbsp in broth
• Eight peppercorns
• for batter you will need1/4 cup melted butter mix with 1 1/2 cups milk,2 1/2 cups self-rising flour and 3/4 teaspoon salt
• Inspiredtaste.com for the full recipe