Chicken and dumplings are a little different in Delaware

It was the first state to ratify the Constitution and enter the Union. It’s known for its horseshoe crabs, blue chickens and a whole bunch of businesses. It’s the home state of President Joe Biden and Aubrey Plaza. It may be one of the smallest states in America, but Delaware has several claims to fame. But what type of food is he best known for?

Delaware shares most of its famous cuisine with other states. It’s known for its crabs, with many shacks dotting the coastline, but it’s somewhat overshadowed by Maryland in this category. You can find this famous breakfast food, scrapple, on Delaware tables, but it’s also overshadowed by its association with Pennsylvania (specifically Philadelphia, located just over 30 miles from Wilmington). There is, however, one innovation that is quintessentially Delaware (well, sort of): the state’s version of chicken and dumplings, “slippery dumplings.”

Read more: 10 weeknight meals to make with a roast chicken

Delaware Does Chicken and Ravioli Differently

Anyone with a passing knowledge of Southern comfort food knows chicken and dumplings. Like a homemade version of matzo ball soup, the dish consists of a thick, gravy-like chicken broth with chunks of chicken and balls of cookie dough floating in it. Although it is commonly claimed that it was invented to help families get through the Depression, it likely originated in the antebellum South. It makes sense that Delaware, with its large poultry industry and mid-Atlantic location (not too far from the South), would take on this dish. But they do it a little differently.

Instead of traditional teardrop dumplings, which are made by pouring cookie dough into broth, slippery dumplings are rolled out until they are flat, noodle-like and, well, slippery. (For this reason, they are sometimes called “slickers” or “slickies.”) The experience is not unlike that of a very thick, very hearty chicken noodle soup, and you’ll find it in all kinds of restaurants the old way in Delaware.

The slippery origin of slippery pellets

As mentioned, there are two different types of meatballs used in chicken and dumplings: drops and slices. But the origin of these slippery dumplings and why they became so strongly associated with Delaware remain unclear. A recipe by Virginia writer Marion Cabell Tyree in 1879 called for rolling thin biscuit dough and adding it to chicken broth. There are also many mentions of “slick chicken” in North Carolina. So why has the dish become so associated with Delaware?

The answer may have to do with the Pennsylvania Dutch. This group of devout Protestants offers a dish called “bott boi,” or chicken pot pie, which is much more like chicken and slippery dumplings than the dish we know as chicken pot pie. It’s certainly not impossible that the dish crossed the Delaware River and became the default way to prepare chicken and dumplings in the First State. As is often the case in the history of food, the truth is murky, but the food remains and remains delicious.

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