Ultimate Comfort Food

When I think of comfort foods, at the top of the list is my Aunt Willa Fern's Chicken and Dumplings.  I don't know how many dumplings she has made in her life time but if there was a hall of fame for dumplings, she would be the #1 contender.

I've been asked to share her recipe that was published in the church cook book.  Enjoy!

Willa Fern's Dumplings

Ingredients:

1/2 stick softened oleo or butter (Let me just say here, use real butter.  This is too serious to waste on fake butter!)

3 eggs

Dash of salt and pepper

About 1 1/4 cup of flour

Additional flour for rolling out.

Directions:

Beat eggs, butter, salt and pepper together; add flour to make a thick dough. Take about 1/4 of dough at a time. Work extra flour into this portion of dough until easy to handle and then roll out very thin.  Cut and drop into boiling broth; cook until tender.  Add chopped cooked chicken.  Serves 4.  Can be doubled or tripled to feed more!

NOTES:  I add about 8 drops of yellow food coloring to the eggs and butter mixture.  Also, it works good for me to melt the butter first.  I also cannot stress enough the importance of splitting the dough into fourths and rolling each portion out as thin as you can make it.  I also let mine dry for at least a half hour (two hours is better) to be good and dry when you drop it into the boiling broth.  I make a big mess in the kitchen when doing it but it is so worth it!

Also, triple the dough if possible and freeze the dumplings uncooked for later meals.  You can drop the frozen dumplings in boiling broth and it cooks great, you just might need to cook a little longer.