Cooking the South With Michael W. Twitty

Plus, soothing chicken and dumplings for dinner this week.

The Dinner Plan is a two-part project: Every week you get a recipe in this newsletter, plus cookbook recommendations and thoughts on finding inspiration in the kitchen—and a chance to win a copy of my guest’s book. You’re definitely going to want to stick around for a big giveaway coming up for subscribers later this week.

For the full weekly conversation, be sure to follow The Dinner Plan podcast on your favorite listening app. Want to catch up on the show? Start with Joanne Lee Molinaro, Dorie Greenspan, Joe Sasto, Kenji López-Alt, or Rick Martinez.

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Michael W. Twitty’s new book is a sweeping collection of specialties from regions across the American South. There are 260-odd dishes in here, and even getting down to that number involved some challenging decisions. “I had to think about what these recipes mean to people, who creates them, and what they tell about the people who made them in our history,” says Michael in this week’s podcast conversation.

“When you want to illustrate Southern culinary unity and diversity, the first and most important thing is to understand where people are coming from, where they are, and where they’re going,” Michael says. In this episode, he gets into some of the history of migration and adaptation that shaped specific dishes, as well as some of the personal memories that come to mind when these dishes arrive at the table.

He recalls how his grandmother would pierce two or three cloves into an onion before adding it to a pot of chicken and dumplings. “That would really, you know, spark things up,” he says, and “make things really elegant, I think.”

Her version of the comforting dish would vary depending on the season. “So green bean tips and onion bits and garlic bits and carrot bits, anything that’s about to go bad, you can cut down to the healthy heart of it. You throw that in the pot and any, you know, meat or bones…It’s going to feel like a garden. It’s going to feel like the best part of the chicken has been extracted, the flavor from the bones in the broth. You’ve got to have some chopped up fresh herbs, that onion, that carrot, that celery, that mirepoix element. And it’s going to taste like a good country dinner, with all of nature added to it.”

He remembers taking in everything she did in the kitchen.

Scroll down to cook Michael’s chicken and dumplings recipe. But before you do, please hit follow on The Dinner Plan in whatever podcast app you use so our conversation can keep you company in the kitchen tonight.

Win a copy of Recipes from the American South

This book would make a fabulous gift—but if you win this week’s cookbook giveaway, you’re definitely going to want to keep it for yourself.

There are two ways to enter:

1. Make sure you’re signed up as a paid subscriber to this newsletter by end of day Sunday, November 2, 2025. That’s all you need to do. And here’s a bonus: Paid subs also get full access to the 99+ Dinner Ideas list!

2. Free subscribers can enter the giveaway by sending in a “what’s in my pantry/fridge/freezer” voice memo for potential inclusion on the podcast. Just follow the instructions here by end of day Sunday, November 2, 2025. You can still do this even if you’ve sent one in before.

While you’re at it, please do hit that ❤️ at the bottom of this post. Giveaway winner will be alerted by Substack DM and email—be sure to check your messages.

U.S. addresses only, 18+. Giveaway not sponsored or administered by Substack. Ends November 2, 2025. This newsletter includes affiliate links—sometimes I’ll receive a small commission from your purchase that’ll help to support The Dinner Plan.

Michael mentioned:

• Okra Soup

• Princess Pamela’s Soul Food Cookbook (Bookshop here)

• Eugene Walter: American Cooking Southern Style

• Peter S. Fiebleman: American Cooking: Creole and Acadian

• Damon Lee Fowler: Classical Southern Cooking

• Natalie Dupree and Cynthia Graubart: Mastering the Art of Southern Cooking

• Edna Lewis: The Taste of Country Cooking (Bookshop here)

• Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock: The Gift of Southern Cooking (Used on AbeBooks here)

• Ashleigh Shanti: Our South: Black Food Through My Lens (Bookshop here)

• Marcy Cohen Ferris: The Edible South (Used on AbeBooks here)

• Marcy Cohen Ferris: Matzo Ball Gumbo (Bookshop here)

• Alabama/Mississippi Sauce Beautiful (reprinted in Southern Living)

• Sheila Lukins and Julee Rosso: The Silver Palate Cookbook (Bookshop here)

• Fried Apples (reprinted in The Berkshire Eagle)

• Cornbread Kush (reprinted in Vice)

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• Made In’s new Carbon Steel Roasting Pan

Maggie mentioned:

• Hetty Lui McKinnon’s Spicy Bean Curd Skin, Crunchy Veg, and Vermicelli Salad from Linger

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Photo: Nico Schinco

Chicken and Dumplings

Excerpted from Recipes from The American South © 2025 by Michael W. Twitty. Reproduced by permission of Phaidon. All rights reserved.

The rooster that wouldn’t shut up or the hen past her laying days often turned into this Sunday dinner treat. It demanded low and slow cooking to tenderize a chicken that had strong, developed muscles and tough meat. Some may not think the carrots necessary or find them anathema, but some of us can’t live without them in this dish. Soft pillowy dumplings and a stew cooked all day really hits the spot. My grand-mother’s secret was an onion studded with cloves that cooked with the chicken and was removed after the chicken was finished cooking. The meal had to be good and fit for a preacher—who was usually the guest for this meal.

Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour and 30 minutes
Serves: 6

INGREDIENTS

For the base:

• 1 whole chicken (4 lb/1.8 kg)

• 8 cups (1.9 liters) chicken stock

• 1 large onion, chopped

• 3 carrots, peeled and sliced

• 3 celery stalks, roughly chopped

• 2 bay leaves

• 1 teaspoon dried thyme

• Fine salt and freshly ground black pepper

• ½ cup (4 fl oz/120 ml) heavy (whipping) cream

For the dumplings:

• 2 cups (260 g) all-purpose (plain) flour 1 tablespoon baking powder

• 1 teaspoon fine salt

• ½ teaspoon baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)

• ¾ cup (6 fl oz/180 ml) buttermilk

• 3 tablespoons (45 g) unsalted butter, melted

DIRECTIONS

1. Prepare the base: Place the whole chicken in a large pot and cover with chicken stock. Add the onion, carrots, celery, bay leaves, thyme, and salt and black pepper to taste. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until the chicken is cooked through and tender, about 1 hour.

2. Remove the chicken from the pot and let it cool slightly before shredding the meat, discarding the skin and bones. Return the shredded chicken to the pot and stir in the heavy (whipping) cream.

3. Make the dumplings: In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda (bicarb). Stir in the buttermilk and melted butter until a dough forms.

4. Bring the soup to a simmer and drop in spoonfuls of the dough. Cover and cook until the dumplings are cooked through and fluffy, 15–20 minutes.