Grandpa's Buddies

So my Grandpa Drake was Italian, right? So he loved these homemade chicken tortellini his mom would make (hence why he called them his buddies). So he decided to figure out Great Grandma Lechene's recipe for his favorite dinner. It took a couple of calls to my mother to clarify some things but I was able to make them as well. They're delicious and I love them on a cold day.

This is what Grandpa wrote in his history as recorded by his own voice:

Take six eggs in a bowl and beat with 3 cups of flour and one teaspoon of salt. Beat eggs and flour. You may need to add flour to have it roll out well. Leave it out for one hour while preparing the filling.


 Boil one chicken, save the broth, and bone the chicken. Grind the chicken with 3 pieces of celery, one onion, one beat up egg, one cup of cracker crumbs, two tablespoons of parmesan cheese. Season to taste with salt, poultry seasoning, and sage. Roll out dough. Add 1/2 teaspoon of stuffing to every 2 inch square of dough. Cut and fold. Let stand in refrigerator until dry. Cook in chicken broth until tender/ May be frozen for later use.


There were a couple of corrections my mom told me to make because she remembers when he made it he would use Progresso Italian Breadcrumbs instead of cracker crumbs. Also I would like to add when combining the egg and flour, add a little flour at a time until you get a stiff dough. One more thing, I added some chicken broth to the water saved for the soup so that it would have a more chicken flavor. My mom suggests doing the same because my grandpa would leave the bones in the water for quite some time so unless you have a lot of time on your hands, I would use either a boullion cube or some chicken broth.Other than that, everything was great.

I didn't really know my Grandpa Drake, he died shortly after I was born. I have only one picture with him. I wish I could have known him more. Cooking makes me feel closer to him and most especially, when cooking his Buddies.

Add flour slowly to the eggs then let sit for an hour while preparing the stuffing.

Boil the chicken and save the broth.

Let Chicken rest a while before digging in and pulling it apart, it is very hot!

Shred the chicken so the food processor doesn't die trying to grind up the chicken

Chicken onion and celery are to be ground together in a food processor. If you have one of those old timey food grinders...I wouldn't suggest it...it would take forever and your arm would hurt afterwards.

Then mix the grindings with the egg parmesan, breadcrumbs and seasonings.

Now it's time to roll out the dough. I tried to keep it fairly rectangular so I didn't have a ton of waste.

I measured my squares because i'm a nut and require things to be on the more organized side. (Dad would be proud)

And then the final product...it may not be pretty but OH MAN is it good.

Boil these suckers in the reserved broth (I strained my broth so it would look prettier) and then you're ready to enjoy. 

We were just so excited to eat them by the time we got done they were gone and we didn't get a picture. But rest assured it was beautiful, especially with a loaf of Italian Bread on the side.