Who doesn’t love a bowl of piping-hot Cracker Barrel dumplings? These pillows of starchy goodness so often hit the spot when you are looking for something that makes you feel full and warm.
Interestingly, these are actually served without chicken at the restaurant when ordered as a side dish. If you like, you can add some cooked shredded chicken and have your own homemade chicken and dumplings.
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Southern Dumplings
Southern dumplings aren’t difficult to make, and they can be put together rather quickly. This side dish doesn’t require a lot of different ingredients that you may need to go out and buy. But rather it has a lot of ingredients you already have in your pantry.
So if you are looking for an easy side dish from ingredients you already have on hand, this dumplings recipe may be the right one for you to try.
This homemade dumplings recipe is intended to be a side dish, so there aren’t a lot of extra items in it. This is a meatless recipe. If you have some leftover cooked chicken, it would be a great addition to the recipe.
If you are looking for the recipe for the dumplings with chicken, check out our Cracker Barrel Chicken and Dumplings: A Comfort Food Classic Made at Home.
Ingredients for Cracker Barrel Dumplings
- All-purpose flour – Creates the structure and body of the dumplings
- Baking powder – Provides a slight lift that makes the dumplings tender
- Salt – Enhances all the flavors in the dish
- Whole milk – Adds richness and helps create a soft dough
- Vegetable oil – Creates flexibility in the dough for easy rolling
- Chicken bouillon cubes or chicken soup base – Delivers deep, savory flavor
- Butter – Creates a rich, velvety sauce base
- Sugar – Balances the savory notes with just a hint of sweetness
Ingredient Notes
After developing this recipe, I switched to using a soup base over bouillon cubes. It is my opinion that the soup base tastes better, it is a fact they often have less sodium.
So, it is now my preference to use a soup base in place of bouillon cubes.
How to Make Cracker Barrel Dumplings
- Mix flour, baking powder, salt, milk, and oil, until well blended.
- Transfer the dough to a floured surface.
- Knead the dough a few times.
- Divide the dough in half.
- Roll out half of the dough.
- Cut the dough into pieces.
- In a large pot, combine the water and bouillon cubes.
- Boil until the bouillon cubes are dissolved.
- Add the dough pieces and cook until just about done.
- Use a strainer to transfer the cooked dumplings to a bowl.
- Repeat with the remaining dough.
- Melt butter in a saucepan.
- Add flour and salt. Stir until thickened.
- Combine milk and sugar.
- Add the milk to the butter/flour a little at a time, stirring constantly.
- Remove the sauce from the heat.
- Add the cooked dumplings to the sauce.
- Dissolve the crumbled bouillon cubes in cooking liquid.
- Add bouillon liquid to the sauce and dumplings. Gently stir it in.
- Return the dumplings to the heat and simmer for a few minutes.
Chef’s Notes
Avoid overworking the dough for perfectly tender dumplings. Knead just until the ingredients come together, about 8-10 turns. Roll the dough to approximately 1/8-inch thickness for that authentic Cracker Barrel texture. Too thick, and they’ll be gummy; too thin, and they’ll fall apart.
The sauce should coat the back of a spoon but still flow easily. If it becomes too thick after adding the dumplings, thin it with a tablespoon or two of chicken broth or milk.
Homemade Cracker Barrel-Style Southern Dumplings
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons salted butter
- 1/2 cup diced carrots
- 1/2 cup diced celery
- 1/2 cup diced white onion
- 1 teaspoon salt divided use
- 6 cups water
- 6 teaspoons chicken base
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 cup buttermilk
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the carrots, celery, and onion along with 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Cook until the onions are translucent. Add the water and chicken base and stir until the chicken base dissolves.
- In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, buttermilk, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Stir until the dough just comes together—it will be shaggy.
- Transfer the dough to a floured surface and roll it out into a rectangle about 1/4 inch thick. Cut the dough into 1-inch squares, separating the squares as you cut them so they don’t touch one another. Sprinkle the squares with more flour.
- Strain the vegetables from the broth and return only the broth to the pot (discard the vegetables). Bring to a boil. Slowly add the dumplings, a few at a time, stirring as you go.
- Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 15 minutes to ensure the dumplings are cooked through. Taste and adjust the seasonings.
Video
Nutrition
Popular Cracker Barrel Copycat Recipes
- Bacon Baked Beans
- Cracker Barrel Cheese Potato Recipe
- Homestyle Chicken Dinner
- Old Fashioned Carrot Cake
Southern Side Dishes
- Mush Recipe
- Cauliflower with Cheese Sauce
- Stick of Butter Rice
- Boiled Carrots Recipe
- Freezer Coleslaw
- How to Cook Red Skin Potatoes
- Recipe for Copper Pennies Carrots
- Easy BBQ Baked Beans
- Simple Cooked Cabbage
- Pea and Bacon Salad
Be sure to check out more of my restaurant sides and easy copycat recipes.
. This recipe was by far the EASIEST and tastes 100% just like CB’s dumplings!!!! YUMM!!!!!! Thank you so much!!! I can’t wait to try more of your recipes now that this one came out so PERFECT!!!!
Can I drop pieces of dough in the chicken broth instead of cutting them in stripes.
I think you will need to roll this dough out a bit, but you can drop in random pieces if you desire.
Thanks for Dumplings recipe from Cracker Barrel. My friend really likes these!
a pizza cutter cuts better and quicker
Looks easy enough! I remember that my Mother always added an egg to her mixture.
I forgot to mention when you roll out the dough that you need to roll them out flat as possible. The recipe says 1/4 inch. When dropping into the chicken stock, put a little at a time and stir, do not put all of them at once , they will stick together and you have one big lump that is raw in the middle.
As a former C.B. employee that made these countless times I can tell you the 3 ingredients to this recipe. Self rising flour, shortening, we used the brick and buttermilk. It is that easy. I can’t tell you the amounts because I made them in large quantities. Put ingredients in a mixer and mix tell the mixture until all is bound. Put the mixture on a floured table and cut with a sharp knife. We had a special instrument that cut the mixture in equal squares. Drop into boiling chicken stock. You will know when they are done. They usually flow to the top.
What about the sauce is that the same?
i do mine in the cuisinart just like pie dough, also, just like pie dough–freezing a batch or flash freezing some before cooking just works better they don’t fall apart or get glumpy at all and are perfect
Hi! I’ve made these before and we all love them – yummy!! Has anyone tried freezing them so you can just pull them out last minute for supper?
Thanks,
Holly