Thomas Boemer built his Minneapolis reputation on Revival, a fried chicken operation that ran for years and was genuinely one of the best in a city not traditionally associated with that sentence. He is now Culinary Director for Wondrous Collective. He has cooked chicken and dumplings his entire career. Bobby Flay has cooked chicken and dumplings in the general spirit of the dish.
Boemer's dumplings were drop dumplings, not rolled — a wetter dough with a 3:1 flour-to-fat ratio that forms a pillowy exterior when it hits the simmering broth. He dropped them into a broth that had already been enriched with the braised chicken's collagen — a three-hour braise on thighs, not breasts — and covered the pot to let the steam cook the dumpling tops. Uncovering prematurely kills the rise.
Years of fried chicken mastery built a cook who understands exactly what fat and steam do to a dough. Bobby's dumplings, per judges, were dense. Covering the pot is not optional.