Chicken Noodle Soup (with Grandma's noodles)

This is a very good soup! Make this when you are craving a yummy chicken noodle soup, or when people are starting to get sick around you. Fix yourself a bowl of this, and hopefully the shot of penicillin will keep the sickness away from you. 

Try making grandma's noodles from scratch ( recipe in the side bar), or use "Grandma's" Brand frozen egg noodles - thawed according to package directions ( they are good. Found in the frozen section next to Texas Toast in my local store - not sure what section of your store)

If I use chicken from a rotisserie chicken I will throw a whole leg in the pot -skin and all - from the start when I add the broth, so it can flavor the soup

1- 32oz box of Kitchen Basics brand, or Swanson chicken broth

4 cups water

2 tsp chicken bouillon, or chicken bouillon base 

2 tsp olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

3 carrots, sliced

2 celery stalks, sliced ( I like to use the small inner leaves too)

1 cup dried homemade noodles ( or use the Grandma brand frozen noodles)

1 large boneless chicken breast, *cooked, cut into cubes ( or use chicken from a rotisserie chicken)

salt and pepper to taste

fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped

In a large stock pot heat olive oil, add onions, carrots, celery and saute for about 3 minutes. Add broth, water and bouillon and bring to a boil. Add noodles, bring broth down to a simmer and simmer for 25-30 minutes. Adjust salt and pepper to taste, sprinkle in some flat leaf parsley for color. Add cubed chicken breasts. Serve hot.

* the best way I've found to cook chicken for soups, or to add to casseroles is to poach it. Place 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts in a pan big enough so the chicken is laying flat. Add just enough water to cover completely. Add 1 heaping tsp chicken bouillon and a bay leaf. Bring almost to a boil, just enough so the bubbles start to break on the surface, reduce heat to simmer and simmer for 3 minutes. (boiling makes the meat tough) Turn heat off, cover pan and let sit for 20 minutes. Let chicken cool in broth. The chicken will take in all the flavors of the broth and be nice and tender. Use the broth for the soup in place of some of the water.

** I like a squeeze of lemon and a few slices of jalapenos in my bowl of soup.

Grandma Fisher's Homemade Egg Noodles

The last time I was in Illinois I asked my cousin Suzy to teach me how to make Grandma Fisher's homemade egg noodles. She happened to be cooking a roast for dinner, so it was perfect timing. She made a batch, and I watched, and then I made a batch. She tossed them all together and she said no no one knew the difference between the batches when they ate them. yay! 

As with most noodles the broth gives the noodles their flavor, so use rich broth. You can use either chicken, or beef broth to cook the noodles. They are 'dumpling' type noodles, so they have a chewier texture than the dried egg noodles you find in your local grocery store. Cut the noodles as wide as you would like, just make sure to cut them as uniform as possible, so the cooking time will be the same. 

Use my chicken noodle soup recipe (as shown in the picture above - recipe found on the side bar) and you will not be disappointed! So yummy!

If you want to use the noodles in beef broth - something I do is...after you have simmered a roast until tender in a dutch oven on top of the stove ( to simmer the roast; I mix 2 cups of water with a 1/2 package (whole package is too salty for me) of Lipton dry onion soup mix, and a can of cream of mushroom soup - simmer the roast for 2 1/2 to 3 hours until tender - (no extra salt please there is plenty in the soups) remove the roast to a plate to rest, bring the beef broth to a boil, (depending on how long you simmered the roast you might have to add some beef broth, or water to the pot) add the egg noodles, bring broth down to a simmer, and simmer, stirring occasionally, to make sure the noodles aren't sticking, about 25-30 minutes, or until tender. 

                                                            

        roll the dough as thin as you can. I find it easier to divide the dough in half and roll two batches

cut the noodles any length you want - 2 inches long seem a good length

                                                  

*recipe courtesy of Suzy Fisher

1 egg
2 egg yolks
1 Tablespoon water
1 teaspoon salt
all-purpose flour

In a bowl mix with fork the egg, egg yolks, water and salt. Add enough flour to form a dough that is not sticky. About 1 1/2 cups flour. (I knead for a few minutes (until it's not sticky) to get the gluten going and then let rest, covered, for about 30 minutes, so it will be easier to roll out after the gluten has had time to calm down, so it doesn't keep springing back on you when you roll it)

After the dough naps for 30 minutes - roll out dough on wax paper that has been sprinkled with flour. Wait about a half an hour, (because Suzy said so!) and then cut into 2 inch long strips with a knife, noodle cutter, or a pizza cutter. ( I use a pizza cutter!) Lift up noodles and toss the strips with some flour and let sit for a couple of hours to dry. Cook right away, or put the thoroughly dried noodles in a ziplock bag in the cupboard for up to a month.

To cook:
Bring rich beef, or chicken broth to a boil in a dutch oven. Put dried noodles into boiling broth, ( or soup) reduce to a simmer and cook noodles for 25-30 minutes, or until tender. The broth is what gives the noodles their flavor so the richer the better.

Homemade Spaghetti & Fettuccine Noodles

Put 5 cups of flour on a work surface. Push the flour to the sides to make a well. Add 7 large eggs, or 5 jumbo eggs, 3/4 tsp extra virgin olive oil. Mix oil and eggs with a fork. Gradually beat in the flour from inner side of well wall with hand, keeping wall in tact while mixture is still runny, until it comes together in a cohesive, kneadable mass. Knead dough with floured hands, incorporating more flour from well wall until dough no longer sticks to hands. (you will have left over flour) Set dough aside and scrape up and discard flour from work surface. Lightly reflour work surface, continue to knead dough, reflouring hands often until smooth and elastic, about 6 minutes. ( dough should still be slightly tacky.)
Form dough into a ball, then dust well with flour and wrap with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at room temperature for an hour. Unwrap the dough after an hour, cut dough in half and rewrap half of the dough to roll out when done with first half. Reflour hands and slowly and evenly roll out the dough. You will have to roll, roll, roll, pushing down rather hard to get it as thin as possible. You might have to lift up the dough and put some more flour down so it doesn't stick to work surface. You should try to get the pasta as thin as possible. You should be able to sort of read a newspaper if you held it behind the rolled dough.

Now you get to cutting it. I used a pizza cutter. You can cut it in big strips for lasagna noodles, or pictured here these noodles turned out to be the size of fettuccine noodles. Let pasta dry (you don't have to have this embarrassing concoction to dry your pasta.) If you have long kabob skewers you can put the skewers under a few plates and put something heavy on the plates to keep the skewers in place under the plates and let the skewers stick out away from the cabinet and place the pasta noodles on the skewers to dry. Let dry at least 24 hours before storing in zip lock bags. If you cook right away it only takes about 3-4 minutes in boiling salted water. Drain in colander, but do not rinse pasta.

For this spaghetti size noodles I cut it really really thin.

Cheesy Chicken Casserole - Crockpot

The taste of this dish always reminded me of an alfredo sauce. 

• 2 -10 oz pkg frozen broccoli spears, thawed
• 2 cups milk
• 2 -8 oz pkg cream cheese
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp garlic salt
• 1 1/2 cups grated parmesan cheese - in the green can
• 10 -12 slices cooked chicken or turkey

Cut broccoli spears into bite size pieces and place in the bottom of a greased crock pot. In a saucepan blend milk, cream cheese, salt, garlic salt, and parmesan cheese over low heat until melted or smooth. Pour one cup over broccoli, top with sliced chicken. Pour remaining sauce over chicken. Cover and cook on low heat setting 4-6 hours. Serve over noodles.