Craving a bowl of piping-hot Cracker Barrel dumplings? These pillowy pockets of starchy goodness are the ultimate comfort food, perfect for warming your soul and satisfying your hunger. The best part? You can easily recreate this beloved side dish at home with just a handful of pantry staples. Add some shredded chicken for a heartier meal, or enjoy them as-is for a taste of Southern nostalgia.
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Why you’ll love this Cracker Barrel Dumplings copycat
- Comforting and delicious: Tender dumplings in a rich, savory sauce that warms your soul
- Simple ingredients: Made with pantry essentials you likely already have on hand
- Quick and easy: Comes together in under an hour for a fuss-free side or main dish
- Versatile: Enjoy as a meatless side or add shredded chicken for a complete meal
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. In my opinion, the soup base tastes better; it is a fact that they often have less sodium.
So, it is now my preference to use soup base instead 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.
Storage & Reheating
- To reheat, thaw overnight in the fridge if frozen, then warm gently in a saucepan with a splash of chicken broth or milk until heated through.
- Refrigerate leftover dumplings in an airtight container for up to 4 days.
- Freeze cooked dumplings in a freezer-safe container for up to 3 months.
Cracker Barrel Dumplings Copycat Recipe
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
Notes
Tips & Tricks
- Don’t overwork the dough – knead just until smooth for tender dumplings.
- Roll the dough to 1/8-inch thick for the perfect Cracker Barrel texture.
- Adjust sauce consistency with chicken broth or milk if needed.
- Add cooked, shredded chicken for a heartier meal.
- Freeze uncooked dumplings on a baking sheet, then transfer to a zip-top bag for easy meal prep.
Nutrition
Popular Cracker Barrel Copycat Recipes
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- Cracker Barrel Cheese Potato Recipe
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- Old Fashioned Carrot Cake
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- How to Cook Red Skin Potatoes
- Recipe for Copper Pennies Carrots
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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 concur. It’s been about 25 years since I worked there, but I used the biscuit remnants as a start and added the flour, and buttermilk, and shortening to add to the batch.
There was no sauce. It was just the dumplings and the broth.
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