Amish Chicken and Noodles

palatablepastime

10 years ago

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Amish Chicken and Noodles is a timeless regional version of chicken with noodles, and most definitely true comfort food.

Amish Chicken and Noodles

By Sue Lau | Palatable Pastime

I am very pleased to be able to host the Sunday Supper event for this week which is Regional Specialties. I know everyone has a special food from the area where they live which they can be proud of. For me, having moved around a bit with my husband and daughter due to the military, we feel right at home with many regional foods.

Since we currently live in Cincinnati, I thought of doing some of the foods from here, the obvious of which are mostly Cincinnati chili and goetta. In fact, the first post I ever did for Sunday Supper (last year) was for Cincinnati Chili as part of the “Hometown Favorites” event. I was happy to share that one as I have a pretty good recipe for it. If you haven’t had that chili before, it is a Greek style, and never meant to really be compared with a Texas chili at all. They are two different animals completely. In Cincinnati, we like to serve it 5-Way, which means chili on top of spaghetti, with beans, onions, and a terrific mound of finely shredded cheese. It is usually served with oyster crackers and a bottle of Louisiana hot sauce.

I like Goetta too, and if you haven’t had that one, it is a mixture of pork with pinhead oats which is made into a loaf, then sliced and cooked in the skillet until it gets a bit crisp. It needs to be crisp to have that properly. And that is an option instead of breakfast sausage, but by no means does it stop there. I’ve seen it in lots of things- biscuit gravy, tacos, as hot dogs (a local company even packages it that way in casings) and so many more. The flavor is similar to pork sausage, but then again, not. I thought about sharing a recipe for it, but I have some things with goetta on the blog already, and didn’t have chicken noodles, so went with that instead. Sometimes, it’s just about balance. I’ll get to making goetta some other time.

As for the Amish chicken and noodles, that is not entirely a “Cincinnati” recipe, but one for Ohio in general. There is a huge Amish community up towards Millersburg and Sugarcreek in the NE part of the state, but there are quite a few Amish in the SW Ohio area, particularly around Lebanon. You won’t see them around much (even though there are road signs with the horse and cart here and there) as they generally keep to themselves, and who can blame them? Also I know Bob Evans (the restaurant) runs out of southern Ohio, and one of their staples is chicken and noodles, but I find it to be a bit disappointing as it is kind of soupy. (It gets better if it sits refrigerated overnight) so you will find my recipe to be unlike theirs.

I know a lot of traditional recipes for this and dumplings tend to toss a chicken in a pot, boil the bejeezus out of it to get their stock then pull the chicken from the bones and throw the bones away, which I find quite disturbing. One, the chicken after that much boiling will have no flavor. Two, if you want chicken stock, don’t toss the bones- save them in the freezer and when you have a good amount, boil *those* down with a few aromatics to get your stock for next time.

In this recipe, I would sometimes roast my own chicken and make my noodles from scratch- and I was going to do that but ended up misplacing my recipe somewhere. (It happens) so I decided to do a quick and dirty which is great for busy nights. I essentially bought a ready-to-go rotisserie chicken and pulled the meat off, tossed the skin (and saved those bones!) and instead of noodles from scratch, used a bag of dried noodles off the shelf. Doing this saves a lot of time and I know that for many people, saving time is really important! And for those of you who like things from scratch, the other recipe will turn up and I’ll post it later.

But I do hope you enjoy this recipe, and make sure to check out the huge list of recipes from Sunday Supper which follows the recipe printout. There are a lot of great sounding recipes in there. I can’t wait to try them! I pin my favorites to Pinterest to save for later.

And thanks for joining us for this event!

~Sue

Amish Chicken and Noodles

Servings: 6-8
Time: 35mins
Difficulty: moderate
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Ingredients:

1-1/2 pounds chopped cooked (roasted) chicken
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped carrot
1 cup chopped celery
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 tablespoon minced fresh sage
1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary
1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme
1 tablespoon minced Italian parsley
3 cups chicken broth
1 cup whole milk
1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 tablespoons butter
16 ounces dry Amish style egg noodles or kluski noodles

Method:

Chop chicken and vegetables and set aside.
Heat salted water for noodles and cook according to package directions, timing it so they get done about the same time as the sauce. Mine cook in 25 minutes, but some brands cook in far less- so take what your package states into consideration.
Heat oil in a deep pan and saute the onions, carrots, celery and garlic until soft.
Stir in the salt, pepper, turmeric and herbs.
Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables and cook for a minute, stirring to evenly coat, then add the butter, chicken broth and milk.
Continue cooking and stirring over low heat until mixture begins to thicken, then add in the chicken and stir again.
When the chicken sauce is hot, combine it with the hot cooked egg noodles.

From the kitchen of palatablepastime.com

Sunday Supper Regional Specialties

Hosted by Sue Lau of Palatable Pastime

A taste of home. Everyone knows something that is commonly prepared around the place they live that everybody loves. It can really warm the heart, ground you, and provide the communal sustenance of friendship, common background and local flavor.

For me, growing up in St. Louis, I was weaned on barbecued pork steaks, toasted ravioli, St. Paul sandwiches, cracker crust pizza with provol cheese, gooey butter cakes, and of course, Ted Drewe’s Frozen Custard.

Bill and I moved away after we married, being wrapped up in that machine we call the US Military. Every few years we found a new place to call home. Across the south, with specialties like whole fried catfish and an astonishing array of barbecue, to Florida with all its seafood (rock shrimp are a particular favorite of mine!) and then back north to Ohio where at long last, having settled in Cincinnati, we have come to enjoy the spoils of Cincinnati chili and of course, goetta.

It all has become woven into the tapestry of our lives. Food memories span the years from many places, breaking bread with many faces. And now, with some places far in the distant past we can talk with friends and say “Do you remember the food they had at…” and immediately receive knowing nods and smiles.

This Sunday, over fifty bloggers from all over the planet will share some of their favorite regional specialty recipes with you. And on Sunday evening we will gather around the table for a fun and lively Twitter chat at 7 p.m. ET. To join the conversation, use the hashtag #SundaySupper and feel free to jump in anytime and share your own meatball recipes, tips and ideas!

Appetizers: