Aldi Review: Brookdale Chicken and Dumplings

Brookdale Chicken & Dumplings

I grew up in the South, so I've eaten more than my share of chicken and dumplings. It was a regular menu item in my house - both my Granny and my Mom would make THE BEST scratch chicken and dumplings! Big chunks of shredded chicken and fresh vegetables in a thick sauce covered with the most amazing dumplings - just a little crusty brown on top, but soft, light and pillowy at the same time, soaking up the sauce underneath.

A little later, as us kids got older and Mom returned to working outside the home, meal preparation was much more hurried, and canned chicken and dumplings became the norm. In our house, we had Sweet Sue Chicken & Dumplings. It was hearty and filling - tasty enough, but in no way even close to anything Mom or Granny cooked up on the Sunday afternoons of my early childhood. But still, I feel all warm and fuzzy just thinking about it.

The Brookdale Chicken & Dumplings from Aldi does manage to elicit that nostalgic response, but that's about the best thing I can say for it. The chicken pieces are obviously "remanufactured" chicken chunks with vegetable protein and binders added. The label says it's "white chicken", and I can't argue that - the chicken pieces are pretty pale. But they certainly don't have the texture of what most people think of when they think of white chicken - namely, the breast meat. This chicken is molded into rubbery bits with the consistency and texture of firm tofu. The dumplings are gelatinous chunks of a doughy substance that reminds me of really thick, really over-cooked pasta swimming in gooey gravy.

Chicken & Dumplings in the pot.

But having said all that - in this case, nostalgia trumps quality. One spoonful, and I was immediately taken back to the "warm and fuzzy place" of my childhood. And that's why I'll probably buy this again. It's not going to be on my shopping list every week, but every now and then - sure, I'll pick it up. If I didn't already have such deeply ingrained childhood memories, the nostalgia factor wouldn't come into play here at all, and I'm sure I'd never touch this stuff again.

So, for me, the Brookdale Chicken & Dumplings is really only good because it reminds me of a much simpler time in my life, and there's a certain comfort in that. If you don't share that experience and those kinds of feelings, I'm not sure you'd find this dish all that appealing.

Which leads to an interesting question. Do you sometimes buy food solely for the sentimental appeal? Is this necessarily a good or bad thing? It's something I'm certainly going to think more about.

Let me know what you think!