Ideas for home cooked comfort food

Chicken and dumplings, beef stew, hamburger gravy over mashed potatoes, tuna casserole, and egg noodles with butter-fried crumbs were repeated favorites for home cooked comfort food. No single dish won out in this cooking discussion among home cooks, and many of the cravings were connected to family recipes or memories of a parent’s cooking.

Which comfort dishes came up repeatedly?

Chicken and dumplings drew particularly strong support, including mentions from people remembering their mother’s cooking. Beef stew and hamburger gravy over mashed potatoes also appeared more than once, making them useful ideas if you want to start with dishes that more than one person named.

• Chicken and dumplings: Multiple home cooks named it as a comfort favorite.
• Beef stew: More than one person chose it, with one connecting it to memories of a mother’s cooking.
• Hamburger gravy over mashed potatoes: Two participants described craving this combination.
• Tuna casserole: It appeared as both a named favorite and a family recipe shared in more detail.
• Egg noodles with fried crumbs: The discussion included versions with cracker crumbs and bread crumbs.

These are ideas to choose among, not a ranking. The discussion supports a shortlist of familiar favorites rather than a claim that everyone wants the same comforting meal.

Which dishes carried memories of home?

Chicken and dumplings and beef stew were both linked to mothers’ cooking. The shared tuna casserole also came from a family version, while the bread-crumb noodle topping was described as something a participant remembered.

For a reader deciding what to cook, those connections offer another way to choose: start with a dish that resembles something your own family made. The thread repeatedly tied comfort to those personal associations, without settling on a particular recipe that everyone should follow.

What can go over egg noodles?

One home cook described frying cracker crumbs in butter and putting them over cooked egg noodles. Another recalled a version using bread crumbs, so the topping was not limited to crackers.

That gives you two variations mentioned in the discussion: cracker crumbs fried in butter, or the remembered bread-crumb version. Only the cracker version came with an explicit frying method; neither included quantities or cooking times. Treat this as a simple dish idea rather than a fully measured recipe.

What went into the family tuna casserole?

One participant supplied a family casserole built around prepared macaroni and cheese. The ingredients and method were informal, especially the mayonnaise measurement and baking directions.

Ingredients shared

• 1 box of macaroni and cheese, including the butter and milk needed to make it
• 1 can of cream of mushroom or chicken soup
• 1 large can of tuna or chicken
• 1 medium/small yellow onion, diced
• about 4 scoops of mayonnaise, an amount the contributor was uncertain about
• 1 can/box of crispy onions for topping
• 1 can/box of peas or another vegetable, optional

Method shared

1. Make the macaroni and cheese.
2. Mix it with the soup, tuna or chicken, diced onion, mayonnaise, and optional vegetables.
3. Put the mixture in a pan and bake at 350 until golden brown.
4. Add the crispy onions on top and brown them as directed.

The directions are incomplete: The temperature unit was not stated, and no baking time was supplied. The uncertain mayonnaise amount also means this should be treated as a record of one family’s approach, not a precise, fully specified recipe.

What should you try first?

Start with chicken and dumplings if you want the dish with the strongest support in this discussion. Beef stew or hamburger gravy over mashed potatoes are other repeatedly mentioned choices. If one of those brings back a family memory, that fits the way many of these home cooks described comfort food.