Easter Noodles--This one runs deep!

Making noodles from scratch has long been a tradition on Todd's side of the family. It started with mom's mom's family. He remembers helping his grandma, then his mom, make noodles as a kid. Now Todd is the noodle maker and is passing it on to our own kids. 

And of course, Todd has added his own spin to it, because he can never just let a recipe be. The original recipe involved noodles and chicken. Now, he makes a chicken soup with vegetables and spices and combines it with the original noodles.

(You can buy and use 24 oz frozen egg noodles, if you want to do it the easy way. Or, you can opt to make your own noodles which is the authentic way to go about it. We'll outline that here.)





The mini chefs are ready!







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Let's get to it!

THE SOUP

Ingredients: 

• 1 whole chicken 
• 1/4 cup Better Than Bouillon roasted chicken base (optional)
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 3 ribs celery, thinly chopped
• a handful of celery leaves, chopped
• 1 t thyme
• 2 t parsley
• 1-1/2 t tumeric
• 1 t coarse black peper
• 1 t salt
• 2 bay leaves
• 3 T all purpose flour (optional)
• splash half and half (optional) 

THE NOODLES

Ingredients: 

• 3-1/2 cups flour, sifted
• 4 large eggs
• 1 T water
• 1/2 t garlic salt

Instructions:

Cut the chicken into 11 parts: 2 legs, 2 thighs, 2 wings, the back, 2 upper breasts, 2 lower breasts.

Add them all into the Dutch oven (DO). Fill the DO with water so that all the chicken is covered. Add the roasted chicken base to the water. Bring to a soft boil for 45 minutes.

While the chicken is cooking it's time to get the noodle process started. Sift the flour into a mixing bowl.

Add the eggs, water, and garlic salt and mix on low for about 30 seconds. It should be in crumbles.

Switch out the flat beater for a dough hook on the mixer and mix for 2 minutes until it is a nice dough ball.

Take out the dough and shape into a loaf. We did three loaves: one daddy sized, one big sister sized and one little sister sized. 





Slice the loves into 1/2 inch slices and run through the pasta roller ("the flattener") on settings 1 then 2 then 4. That's right. Run each slice through three times progressively thinning them each time. 

They are now about linguine thickness. We will run them then through the linguine cutter because we like our egg noodles thick! Flour your counter and spread those newly cut noodles around. 

They need to rest there for about 30 minutes to dry. 

Let's get back to the soup. Remove the chicken legs, thighs and breasts from the DO and let them cool in a pan. Leave the wings and the back in the DO. 





Time to turn it into delicious stock. Add all the veggies and all the spices. Simmer for 20 minutes, covered.

 

Take the leg, thigh and breast meat off the bones. This is the step where your dog starts offering to help. This house smells GOOD! 

Remove the chicken wing and back and the bay leaves from the DO. Add the meat from the legs, thighs and breasts to the DO and stir in. 

 














Let's bring it all together now. Add in the noodles and "nestle" them into the stock. Let them cook at a light simmer for 20 minutes.

*At this point, you can be done! That is, if you are wanting a watery delicious chicken noodle soup. It's amazing for when someone at home is under the weather or you're looking for warmth on a cold day. 








But we're not done. We are turning this into a Stoup (Stew + Soup = Stoup). So we're going to mix the flour with half a cup of the stock.

Then add it to the soup and stir it in.

Stir in the half and half and let it simmer with the lid off, stirring occasionally.






When we plate (or bowl...) it, we garnish it with parsley.

Then it's time to enjoy every little bite. This is one dish that warms us through, our hearts and souls and tummies. We hope it will do the same for you. Your turn! Time to get cooking. Tell us what you think!