Dolly Parton Was 'Famous' For This Comfort Meal She'd Make On Set For Co-Stars

The late, great Dolly Parton spent a good chunk of time on movie sets, appearing in hits like "9 to 5" and "Steel Magnolias." Obviously, her official role on set was as an actress, but Parton apparently dipped into offering her services as a caterer from time to time. In a 2022 interview with Today, she said that she often cooked for cast and crew on her sets, and was best known for bringing huge pots of chicken and dumplings, a classic Southern dish. She built up a reputation: She was asked so often about when she'd bring them that she had to schedule in advance and announce it.

Parton had a family history with the dish: She said she cooked chicken and dumplings because it was one of her mom's recipes (it's also one of her favorite foods), adding that her mom was the best cook she knew, whipping up dishes like the chicken and dumplings for Parton and her 11 siblings. Parton's recipe was initially a secret; she said the main ingredient was "love," but she relented and eventually posted it to Instagram, calling it her signature dish. It has received a thumbs-up from those who replicated it, with the dumplings coming out with the right balance of fluffy yet a little dense inside. It's definitely not a fancy recipe: a giveaway is the fact it calls for a stewing hen, usually an older chicken that's tougher and therefore has to be stewed to get the meat tender. The lower meat quality means stewing hens are generally cheaper (and arguably a more helpful option for those on a strict budget, like Parton's family was at the time).

Although chicken and dumplings is often associated with the American South, the stew (or soup — you could argue it's either, depending on how thick the sauce or broth is) likely has a European history. Some will claim that it was a product of desperate times caused by either the Great Depression or Civil War, but it appeared in cookbooks that predate both of those periods. It also wasn't strictly a working class food: It probably fed people of all income levels and classes.

Dolly Parton's version of chicken and dumplings keeps things simple, with a short ingredient list. It's more on the soupy, brothy side: It calls for a 3-pound chicken (a stewing hen as mentioned, but those aren't so easily found, so regular chicken is likely fine). You simmer it in water with salt, pepper, onion, and celery, and that's more or less the entire broth. As amazing as Parton was, it has been suggested that you may want to deviate from her advice and season the broth a bit more. Some options for extra flavor could be garlic, carrots, and herbs like sage and thyme. The dish also probably requires a lot more time to simmer than the 30-minute window listed in the recipe. The dumplings are made with a dough of flour, baking soda, shortening, and milk, cut into 1 ½-inch squares and plopped in the broth for around 10 minutes.