In honor of my sick little one, whose favorite food in the whole world is homemade chicken noodle soup, I am going to post my chicken noodle soup recipe with how to make your noodles from scratch.
First, I start the evening before we want our soup by making the noodles. Do not be intimidated by making your noodles they are so easy and delicious that you will make them from now on, at least for your soup.
You will need:1 can evaporated milk
(1 1/2 C. Water & 1/2 C. + 1 T. Powdered Milk)3 eggs
1t. salt
flour till dough is stiff
Whisk the first three ingredients till well blended. Whisk in the first couple of cups of flour one at a time. The whisk will not be able to blend in anymore flour so from this point so use your hands. I add the next couple of cups of flour one at a time and blend well in between each additional scoop of flour, then decrease to 1/2c of flour at a time. You are kneading the dough and adding flour till it feels stiff, not like a rock though, and is no longer sticky. Knead for a couple more minutes.
Roll onto a floured surface. At first the dough will spring back to it's smaller shape, keep working those muscles and it will start to roll out. Remember keep the rolling pin and the dough floured to insure it is not sticking to your counter. The shape of your dough is unimportant. I roll mine out to about 1/4" thick, the thicker the noodles the longer it takes them to cook. Then I cover my noodles with a large, clean towel and let it sit overnight to dry. The next morning I flip the dough, cover it up and let the other side dry through the day.
Early afternoon, the day of enjoyment, I will place my whole chicken, or two, in a stock pot with celery, onions, and carrots to start the stock. I leave the vegetables in big pieces to easily remove from my finished stock, heaven forbid a child see an onion in their food. About two hours before I serve the soup I scoop out every thing from my stock pot.
I then add:
1 can of cream of chicken soup
1 can of milk
Thyme, to taste
Salt & Pepper, to taste
I then taste the stock to see if it needs additional chicken bullion for full flavor.
I then cut my noodles into strips. They do widen and thicken a bit once cooked so it may take a time or two to figure out what size your family likes them. We
LOVE wide noodles at our house. Start dropping the noodles into boiling stock, stir after every couple of handfuls of noodles get dropped in to insure they are not sticking to each other. Start stripping the meat off the bones and placing bite sized chunks into the stock pot as well. Add as much meat as you like. I like to boil two chickens in the stock so that I can pull the meat off the second chicken and put in the fridge or freezer for another meal or two later on. It also makes the stock richer in chicken flavor with less bullion added. I leave the soup boiling for about 20 minutes after I have put the noodles in. Turn the heat down to a medium, medium low heat and let the noodles cook for a while. You can cut a noodle, or bite into it, to see if it has cooked all the way through. At this point I will add some cut carrots and celery so that they are crisp tender.
In our hunger I never took a picture of the finished soup. It is delicious, trust me!
We also love to eat our soup with fresh warm French Bread.
1/2 c warm water
2T yeast ----dissolve in the above Water
2c hot water
1/2 c oil
1T salt
2T sugar ----place in mixing bowl and dissolve the salt & sugar
mix in:
3c flour
Then stir in the yeast mixture, add in 3 more cups of flour. I need to add 1/2c - 1c more of flour, depending on the weather, till it forms a soft ball. This means it is pulling away from the bowl forming a ball and is a bit sticky to the touch.
You will let it rise for 10 minutes then turn on the mixer, or knead by hand, to get the air out. You will repeat this process three more times. On the fourth time I divide the dough into two or four balls, depending on the size you want, and shape into loaves of bread. I do use a serrated knife and make a slight cut three times diagonally on the top of each loaf. Whisk an egg and cover each loaf to add a golden crust. Let rise 10-20 minutes and bake at 350 degrees for 25-35 minutes. Make sure that the bread has a dark golden crust and you can knock on the top and hear a hollow sound. Then I know it is done. I have made this bread when I couldn't bake a single other thing, it is that easy. Fresh, warm bread is a treat all on it's own but add some fresh jam and dessert is served!
I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as my family enjoys it!
