8 Delaware Foods Delawareans Can’t Believe the Rest of the Country Skips
Delaware may be small, but its food scene has many surprises.
Locals grow up on dishes that visitors may never have heard of, let alone tried.
Here are some local favorites worth tracking down.
1. Chicken and Slippery Dumplings
Sussex County residents already claimed chicken and slippery dumplings as a regional specialty when The Washington Post wrote about them in 1990.
The Post described the dumplings as dough rolled and cut into squares, then cooked in chicken broth.
The broth makes the cooked dumplings slippery.
The Eastern Shore, where Sussex County sits, was an area as well known for its chicken farms as its crab boats.
Many locals are surprised when a visitor has no idea what chicken and slippery dumplings are.
Food Network’s guide to Delaware calls the dumplings flat, square and chewy.
When you order a bowl, expect noodle-like squares, not fluffy biscuits.
2. Scrapple
Scrapple, according to Food Network’s guide, is a breakfast loaf fortified with cornmeal, sliced thin and fried dark brown.
The same guide sends you to Helen’s Famous Sausage House in Smyrna for it.
Scrapple comes slathered with syrup, ketchup or grape jelly.
In a 2019 event announcement, the Delaware Public Archives listed scrapple, crabs and muskrat as foods with deep connections to Southern Delaware.
Bridgeville hosts the Apple Scrapple Festival.
The festival’s website says its crowd grew from 2,500 visitors in 1992 to more than 20,000.
The 2019 festival had over 500 vendors, the Cape Gazette reported, and RAPA donated all of the scrapple.
The festival also has scrapple sandwiches and an invitational scrapple sling contest.
3. Peach Pie
Delaware law makes peach pie the official dessert of the state.
The state’s facts page says peach pie was designated the official state dessert on July 30, 2009.
Peach farming is an important part of Delaware’s agricultural heritage, and the peach was introduced to Delaware in Colonial times.
The Peach Boom Behind the Pie
The state’s facts page says Delaware was the country’s leading peach producer for part of the nineteenth century.
At its peak, Delaware shipped 6 million baskets to market in 1875.
When the state named the peach blossom its flower in 1895, Delaware’s orchards had more than 800,000 peach trees.
The state’s reputation as the Peach State prompted that 1895 vote.
4. Capriotti’s Bobbie
The Bobbie at Capriotti’s is a sub of fresh turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and mayonnaise, the Cape Gazette reported in 2023.
Capriotti’s opened its original shop in Wilmington in 1976.
You can thank the owners’ aunt, Bobbie, for the name.
When you order one, you’re getting a recipe that has never changed.
A Lewes shop opened in 1998, at Lewes Plaza on Savannah Road.
5. Grotto Pizza
Grotto Pizza started in 1960, when Dominick Pulieri founded it with his brother-in-law and his sister.
The Pizza Hall of Fame says it began in Rehoboth Beach as a takeout-only stand with no tables and a used oven, and that a boardwalk location opened in 1963.
Delaware Today says Pulieri introduced pizza to people in the state back when it wasn’t yet popular, and calls Grotto a veritable empire with many locations statewide.
The chain has nearly 20 outposts across Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland.
Food Network’s guide says you’ll get a pizza that’s nicely thin and slightly sweet, swirled with a secret blend of cheeses.
6. Chicken Splits
Delaware Today calls chicken splits, which are half a chicken, a Sussex County tradition.
Look for the Saturday stand run by Mason-Dixon Post 7234 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
Coastal Point reported in 2025 that the stand runs Saturdays through Labor Day weekend and stays open until the chickens sell out.
Delaware Today says the chickens are usually gone well before 5 p.m., so you’ll want to arrive early.
Coastal Point said a half chicken with a bag of chips cost $10 in 2025, cash only.
Proceeds go toward veterans and patriotic community programs.
Food Network’s guide calls such stands summer-long fixtures that service groups have run for decades, including a Kiwanis club’s in Bridgeville and an American Legion post’s in Dagsboro.
Psst! How much do you know about Delaware’s state symbols? Take our quiz and see if you can ace it.
Quiz
State Symbols IQ
Answer nine questions on the state’s nicknames, symbols, and capital. We bet you can’t get them all right. Prove us wrong?
According to legend, who gave Delaware the nickname “The Diamond State”?
7. Nic-o-Boli
Order a Nic-o-Boli, and you get ground beef, pizza sauce and a blend of cheeses rolled in dough and baked, according to its maker, Nicola Pizza.
The company started business in Rehoboth Beach in 1971.
Soon afterward, owner Nicholas Caggiano originated the Nic-o-Boli, offering it to his employees first and later to customers.
The company also says the sauce and dough contain no animal fat or vegetable oil.
Food Network's guide calls it an only-in-Delaware ground beef-and-pizza dough pocket.
You can think of it as a calzone with a ground beef filling.
8. Strawberries
Delaware named the strawberry its state fruit in 2010.
The state's facts page says Delaware strawberries are bred for taste, not to be big or to last long on a store shelf.
The strawberry is also an important product of the state's agricultural industry.
The strawberry and peach pie are both on the state's list of official symbols.
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