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.
Being a gluten free vegan I made a few tweaks but it came out delicious! If using gf flour remember to add a bit of xanthan gum or they will most likely fall apart in the boiling water. Thank you for the hard work you do to make these wonderful recipes for us!
Yes! Yes! Yes! Better than Cracker Barrel. My teenage daughter was craving CB dumplings, but I’m recovering from surgery and can’t drive. We found this recipe, put on some Christmas music, and went to town. Yum!!! Thank you.
P. S. To the CB cook who said this is not the actual recipe. That’s not really what copycat recipes are. It’s the outcome you’re going for.
Can I use a non dairy milk by chance?
I am a backup cook for Cracker Barrel The recipe is way off off. We do not use vegetable oil other then to spray the kettles. And no butter is used in the recipe. There is no sauce made to create the dumping they cook in there own liquid’s
My grandmother taught us to drop the dumplings in the boiling broth but it’s my understanding Cracker Barrel bakes the dumplings .
These are Stephanie’s Copy Cat dumplings and the only ones I make; absolutely delish. Who cares if they aren’t exactly Cracker Barrel’s? I love them!!!
My boys both agree that this is better than Cracker Barrel, but I used broth from a whole chicken carcass that I cooked down in the crock pot.
You can make buttermilk by adding a fourth of a teaspoon of lemon juice to a cup of milk
this really works
As a shortcut and alternative to making dough, what do you think about using raw biscuits from a can or even flour tortillas? I know people who use one or the other.
Bill….Biscuit dumplings offer a completely different taste and texture compared to a fresh rolled dumpling. Biscuit dough is like boiling bread dough vs the rolled dumpling which is like a fresh made large cut noodle
As for flour tortillas honestly I shudder at the thought,but that’s just my personal opinion. Feel free to give it a try if you like,but personally you’d probably be better off just using bisquick dumplings (see recipe on side of the box) than flour tortillas
Heids, THANK YOU so much for this comment! I’ve been tearing my hair out trying to figure out why the dumplings I’ve been making haven’t been the ones I thought. Although I haven’t been making biscuit dumplings, I make something similar hoping for the rolled dumpling texture. This may have just solved my dumpling dilemma, thank you!
This version of the dumplings will be used in a very old family recipe called ” Putsin ”
from 18th century Quebec – chicken and dumplings where the strips are dropped into a very rich chicken soup. Thanks for the missing element.
I hope you enjoyed this recipe. I love these soft dumplings. They could be cut into any shape you like.
Hi I was wondering if I could replace the all purpose flour and baking powder for self rising? And if I did would it make a big diffrence? I’m hoping to make these for a side dish for thanksgiving dinner. Thank you so much for posting this recipe!
I haven’t tried this before. I am not certain of how this would change the recipe. These are fairly light as written.
What do you mean in this recipe by soup base I don’t understand how do you make that
i have used self rising flour and the only difference i seen was the dumplings came out a little thicker but they tasted the same.
Where do you find the actual recipe on this site?
Can someone tell me where the recipe went?
if you click print recipe on the toolbar that pops up on the left side of the screen it shows the full recipe like it used to be listed.
Where did the be recipe go?
Where did the exact measurements go?
It says boil until bullion dissolves… How low should I turn it down for the rest the dumpling cooking…? Medium? Low? If you have any advice please tell me. Thanks.
Love these dumplings, I cook them a little longer, after reading some where having doughy problems. Tast great, will be making them again…
Very simple, very delicious!
I am glad you enjoyed the recipe.
Best recipe ever. Thank you thank you thank you! In this economy we can’t afford to eat out….but we can eat in! 🙂
I am so happy you enjoyed this recipe. I hope you get a chance to try a few more recipes in the futre.
If you add about a teaspoon to a cup of whole milk it mimics the flavor of buttermilk and saves some money if you want to use buttermilk. Let it sit for about an hour in the fridge before you use it.
Amanda, I am going to give your suggestion a try. I love this idea. I know sometimes I hate to run out to the store to buy one thing.
I hope you realize that Cracker Barrel chicken and dumplings are from a bag
As almost their entire menu comes from Sysco foods
I appreciate your comments. Thanks. These are homemade dumplings and I hope you find they taste really good.
These dumplings look delicious. Can’t wait to give them a try!
Let me know how this recipe turns out for you.
p.s. dumplings cook pretty fast. My dumplings floated the whole time so I just cut one after they fluffed up a bit and peeked inside. Done and done.
They do cook really fast. Thank you for sharing your experience.