This story was first published in the May 2025 issue of The Best Years as “Community Cookbook: Make Chicken and Dumplings With Sonja Davis.”
Sonja Davis of Jackson grew up learning the ropes of farm life. Her dad raised cattle and pigs on his 500-acre farm. Chickens were ordered in the spring and butchered in the fall; their down feathers were saved for pillows. When extra help was hired to harvest corn, Davis helped her stepmom cook all morning for the hungry crew, who ate at Noon. This is how she learned to cook — hands-on and cooking with someone.
“My stepmom was a wonderful human,” Davis says. “She led 4-H, taught me how to sew, and we’d spend every Saturday cooking. She encouraged me to get the cookbook down and pick something I’d like to make. There’s no better bond than cooking with somebody. It’s fun.”
Davis made yeast bread, hot rolls and tea rings with her stepmom, but it was her grandma who made chicken and dumplings every Sunday. Later, in college, her birth mother, Maxine Rainwater Smith, taught her how to make the dumplings. Throughout the years, Davis has adjusted the original recipe and learned a few tips. Namely, she removes the bones.
“My mother put a whole chicken in a pot, cooked it down, put the dumplings in it, and we had to pick the bones out while we ate,” Davis says. “By that time, we had grown. The grandkids were old enough to fuss. But she was the only one who ever made them. If you wanted chicken and dumplings, you better not complain.”
Davis says the key to simple and easy-to-make dumplings is a chilled pastry cloth and a rolling pin sleeve. She keeps them in the freezer while not in use and makes sure they’re well-floured before rolling the dough. To clean, she scrapes them down and shakes them out.
When her grandkids were young, Davis says they loved to roll out and cut the dumplings. And though she no longer makes them weekly, chicken and dumplings are still a much-requested menu item. A store-bought, cooked rotisserie chicken can be used to save time, but Davis recommends cooking the chicken yourself for a more flavorful and tasty broth. If a friend wants to learn how to make them, Davis invites them into her home, showing the process and cooking with them, just like she learned.
“It’s not so much about the ingredients, but the process of practice — rolling, cutting and cooking,” Davis says. “And what makes them so good is love.”
These days, Davis cooks for quite a few local ministries and participates in monthly potlucks, where each person brings a dish. She’s on the meal train ministry with New McKendree’s Breaking Bonds and a sewing ministry through La Croix Church called In His Arms. She’s even helped cook a few times for Street Level Cape.
Davis says she doesn’t like cooking as much as she likes eating home-cooked food. And to get that, you have to cook.
“Sewing fills most of my time,” Davis says. “It’s my passion.”
Momma Mac’s Dumplings
Ingredients:
Chicken leg quarter, cooked and deboned
3/4 cup broth from cooked chicken, cooled and reserved
6 to 8 cups additional broth from cooked chicken
1 egg
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
Better than Bouillon chicken seasoning, to taste
Directions:
Cook chicken and save the broth — this part can be done the day before. Start 6 to 8 cups of chicken broth boiling on the stove in a large 4-quart pot. Add Better than Bouillon chicken seasoning. Davis says the amount depends on the broth, but generally, a heaping tablespoon.
As the broth is coming to a boil, mix the salt and flour in a bowl, forming a pond in the center. In a separate bowl, beat the egg with 3/4 cup cooled broth before pouring it into the center of the flour pond. Stir together with a fork until all flour is blended, leaving it a bit sticky. Dump tacky dough on a well-floured and chilled pastry cloth, kneading just until smooth. Roll the dough flat, using a pin with a chilled sleeve, and cut into thin strips using a pastry tool or butter knife. Pinch each strip into smaller pieces as you drop them into the boiling broth. Stir gently, allowing them to boil for 15 to 30 minutes. Add 1/2 cup of milk for a creamier broth. Dumplings can sit for 30 to 60 minutes on low to absorb the flavor of the broth.
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