Sweet Sue Chicken & Dumplings, can by can

Chicken and dumplings is a Sunday dish in much of the American South. It takes a stewed bird, a bowl of dough and most of an afternoon. Sweet Sue put the finished dish in a can, and the name has been on it for more than fifty years.

The can is simple to buy and worth a closer read. It comes in two sizes. The label tells you how many bowls are inside, what the dumplings are made of and how much salt a cup carries. Buyers add their own notes on taste.

The rest of the list is what turns flour and broth into dumplings that survive a can. Modified food starch thickens the broth. Baking powder lifts the dough. Dehydrated egg binds it. Corn syrup solids, spice extractives and sodium phosphate round out the recipe, and three artificial colors give the broth its yellow: Yellow 5, Yellow 6 and Red 40. Soybean oil closes the list.

The allergens on the label

The Contains line names eggs and wheat. Both come from the dumplings: the flour is wheat and the dough carries dehydrated egg. The product details of the 48 oz can also name soy, and soybean oil is on the ingredient list of both cans.

The small can is the size of a large soup can, about 4 inches across and a little under 4 inches tall. The bulk can is the same width and 7 inches tall. It weighs 3 pounds, so it is a pantry item and not a lunch-bag item.

Choose by the number of bowls you fill in one sitting. An opened can does not go back on the shelf. Whatever is left moves to a covered dish in the refrigerator, and that is easier to manage with one cup than with four.

Buyers confirm that the printed serving is on the small side. One writes that a 24 oz can is not large enough for two adults at dinner, though it would feed two or three children. Another gets two meals from a can when eating alone, and feeds the family with two cans and a vegetable on the side.

A fair rule of thumb follows from those reports. Plan one 24 oz can for one hungry adult or two light eaters. Plan the 48 oz can for three or four adults, or for two with lunch left over for the next day.

Sodium, by the cup and by the can

Salt is the number to know on this label. One cup carries 1,040 mg of sodium, which the panel counts as 43% of the Daily Value. Someone who eats the whole 24 oz can takes in about 3,120 mg.

By that guide a cup of chicken and dumplings, at 43%, sits on the high side, as most canned soups and stews do. The practical answer is in the rest of the plate. Serve it with unsalted vegetables, plain rice or bread, and skip the shaker.

A drained Chicken Breast in Water, 5 oz Can adds about a cup of chunk white chicken to the pot. Cooks who feed a crowd open the Boneless Chicken with Broth, 50 oz Can and use both the meat and the broth. A splash from a Chicken Broth, 14.5 oz Can thins the pot without watering down the flavor.

Two cautions keep the dish in balance. Broth and canned chicken bring their own salt, so taste before seasoning. And every addition is one more thing to check when a guest has a food allergy.

Chicken and dumplings is starch, meat and gravy in one bowl. It wants something green or crisp beside it, and something to wipe the bowl with. Southern tables have settled answers.

• Green beans, collard greens or a plain green salad for contrast.
• Sliced tomatoes or a spoon of chow-chow for acid against the gravy.
• Cornbread or a biscuit for the last of the broth.
• Sweet tea or lemonade, which is tradition and not a rule.

Keep the sides plain. The can supplies the salt and the richness, so vegetables cooked without salt pork and bread without extra butter make a better plate than a second rich dish.

Plenty of cooks use both. They keep cans for weeknights and for the days someone is sick, and they make the long version when family comes. Some start from the can and finish it like a homemade pot, with fresh pepper, a handful of vegetables and a little cream.

A week of lunches from the 48 oz can

The bulk can holds about 6 cups. Portioned on Sunday into lidded containers, that is a few lunches for one person. Keep within the 3 to 4 days that USDA gives leftovers in the refrigerator, and freeze the portions you will not reach in time.

Reheat one portion at a time until it steams. Add a spoon of water or broth first, because the dumplings keep drinking the gravy while they sit.

• As it is: heated, with pepper on top and a green vegetable beside it.
• As a pot pie filling: one 24 oz can with 1 cup of frozen mixed vegetables in a baking dish, under a sheet of refrigerated pie crust, baked until the crust is golden.
• As a thick soup: one 24 oz can thinned with 1 cup of chicken broth and simmered with sliced celery and carrot for 10 minutes.

Each version changes the label arithmetic. Vegetables and broth stretch three cups into four or five bowls, and the salt per bowl falls when the added liquid is water or unsalted stock. A pie crust adds wheat that was already in the dish and fat that was not.

Sweet Sue Chicken & Dumplings holds 4.0 out of 5 from 2,666 ratings, counted across both can sizes. More than half of the ratings are five stars, and about one in eight is one star. It is a can people feel strongly about.

The praise is about comfort and value. Buyers call it chunky and filling, like the gravy, and say the dumplings taste like the flour kind made at home. Several have bought it for decades.

The criticism is just as specific. Longtime buyers say the chicken used to be pulled and is now diced. Some find the broth watery or the dumplings bland, and one tastes the can itself. A few say the recipe is not what they remember from childhood.

Sweet Sue is one of the older names in canned chicken. The trademark record shows it registered on June 27, 1967, in Alabama. The goods on that registration include chicken dumplings, along with barbecued chicken, chicken stew and boned chicken.

A second registration followed on February 17, 1976 and names chicken and dumplings outright. It also lists beef and dumplings and ham and dumplings, two dishes that are no longer in the range. The chicken version outlasted both. More of the record is on the About Sweet Sue page.