Saturday night was soup and pie night at our house. My dad, stepmom, and father-in-law came over for dinner and a little World Series watching. I can’t wait to repeat this meal next month with my hubby’s brother and his family. It’s definitely a meal worth sharing.
Bowls are ready and soup is simmering
Sugar snap peas and carrot sticks with buttermilk ranch
I had been looking forward to making this soup for a while. It’s one my mom’s family makes every Thanksgiving. I can’t remember a Thanksgiving in Missouri without chicken and noodles. I don’t know who started making it, but it was my favorite dish at Thanksgiving when I was a kid. I don’t have the recipe, so I made my own version and it turned out excellent. Followed by the best pecan pie, and my hankering for my Thanksgiving favorites was satisfied. For now, anyway. The soup is really easy, and perfect to make on a lazy Sunday afternoon when you have time to let the chicken simmer for a long time. It makes your house smell amazing. Paired with a pecan pie baking in the oven, and you’ll be in aromatic heaven.
OLD FASHIONED CHICKEN AND NOODLES
Serves 8
Downloadable PDF of Old Fashioned Chicken and Noodles
- Place in a 6-quart stock pot:
- 2 bone-in split chicken breasts
- 4 bone-in chicken thighs
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 30 cranks black pepper from a mill
- 1 onion, peeled and quartered
- 1 carrot, peeled and quartered
- 2 extra-large (or 4 medium-large) garlic cloves, peeled and halved
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 handful fresh oregano, still on stem
- 1 8-ounce container chicken stock
- Water to cover everything by 2-3 inches, nearly filling the pot
- Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce heat to low, and allow to simmer for 1 1/2 hours
- Turn off heat and remove chicken breasts and thighs (carefully so the pieces stay in tact), place on a cutting board and set aside
- Place a large strainer in a bowl large enough to hold all the cooking liquid
- Pour cooking liquid through strainer into bowl to strain out all the vegetables and herbs
- Discard the vegetables and herbs
- Return cooking liquid to the pot
- To the cooking liquid, add 2 teaspoons salt, or to taste, and another 8-ounce container chicken stock
- Bring liquid to a rapid boil
- Add 1 12-ounce package Reames brand frozen egg noodles
- Boil for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally to separate noodles
- While noodles are boiling, carefully remove and discard skin and bones from chicken pieces (the meat should simply fall from the bone after simmering for so long, but will be very hot to the touch near the bone)
- Shred the chicken meat either with two forks or your hands (it’s so tender, it falls apart in my hands and takes only a few minutes to shred)
- Set shredded meat aside
- In a liquid measuring cup, whisk together:
- 2 Tablespoons cornstarch
- 1/2 cup water
- Once the noodles have boiled 20 minutes, add the cornstarch slurry and continue to boil, stirring until soup thickens slightly
- Add the shredded chicken, reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer to heat through
- Serve immediately, or continue to simmer covered until ready to serve.
This soup is SOOO good. We served it with fresh sugar snap peas and carrot sticks on the side with buttermilk ranch for dipping, rosemary bread, and Hawaiian sweet rolls. I went for seconds of the soup and found an empty pot in the sink!
FOR THE PECAN PIE, I used this recipe by Eddy Van Damme that doesn’t use any corn syrup. And it is the best pecan pie recipe. Optional is adding brandy or rum. I don’t keep much alcohol in the house, so add 1/4 teaspoon rum extract instead. It adds the perfect depth of flavor to enhance the pecans. I ran out of brown sugar, so used 1/2 cup brown sugar, and 1 1/4 cups regular sugar with 2 Tablespoons molasses, which turned the custard portion a luscious, deep, dark brown. Baked in a fresh whole wheat pastry crust, and it was absolutely divine.
WHOLE WHEAT PASTRY CRUST
Downloadable PDF of Whole Wheat Pastry Crust
- In a food processor, or large bowl, add:
- 3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- Cut 1 stick cold butter into small pieces, and to the flour mixture
- Pulse processor until the butter creates coarse, peas-sized crumbs (if not using a food processor, use a pastry cutter, two forks, or your hands to cut the butter into the flour)
- Add ice cold water, 1 Tablespoon at a time, and pulse/mix just until dough comes together
- Flatten dough into a disc shape and place on plastic wrap
- Dust with flour and roll out to a circle 2 inches larger than your pie dish
- Lift plastic wrap from countertop, and turn over to gently position pastry in pie dish, gently pressing crust to the sides of the dish
- Pull plastic from the sides only and gently cut away excess pastry from the top edge of the pie dish
- Gently flute the top of the remaining crust, then gently return plastic wrap against sides of pastry and over the edge and refrigerate until ready to fill
- If desired, roll out excess pastry remnants and free-hand cut 5 leaves and set on a plate, cover with wrap, and refrigerate to place in the center of the pie before baking. I use a toothpick to carve the veins of the leaves.
What are your favorite Thanksgiving dishes?
Does your family have a special Thanksgiving dish?
~Ingredients to nourish the body put together in ways to nourish the soul to share with family and friends to nourish the heart~
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