Comfort Food Coma Anyone?

This is my second attempt at homemade noodles. It went much better this time around. I thought I'd also share my chicken and noodle recipe with the world. It's one of my favorite comfort foods and is absolutely perfect on a super snowy day like today.

Noodles
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 beaten egg yolks
1 beaten eggs
1/3 cup water
1 tsp cooking oil or olive oil

1. In a large bowl stir together 1 3/4 cups of the flour and the salt. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture. In a small bowl stir together egg yolks, whole egg, water, and oil. Add egg mixture to flour mixture; mix well.
2. Sprinkle kneading surface with the remaining 1/4 cup clour. Turn dough out onto floured surface. Knead until dough is smooth and elastic (8 to 10 minutes total). Cover and let dough rest for 10 minutes.
3. Divide dough into 4 equal portions. On a lightly floured surface, roll each portion of dough into a 12x9-inch rectangle (about 1/16 inch thick ). (If using a pasta machine, pass each portion of dough through machine according to manufacturer's directions until dough is 1/16 inch thick.) Let stand, uncovered, for 20 minutes. Lightly dust dough with flour. Loosely rool dough into a spiral; cut into 1/4-inch-wide strips. Shake strands to separate; cut into 2- to 3-inch lengths.
4. To servce immediately, cook for 1 1/2 to 2 mintues or until tender but still firm, allowing 1 to 2 minutes more for dried or frozen noodles. Drain.
5. To store cut noodles, spread them on a wire cooling rack. Let noodles dry about 1 hour or until completely dry. Place in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 3 days. Or dry noodles for at least 1 hour and place then in a freezer bag or freezer container; freeze for up to 8 months.

Makes about 1 pound noodles.

Ingredients for noodles.

Adding wet ingredients to dry.

The dough was super dry but kneading helped that. I guess you would have to have it as dry as this or you'd have to add a whole lot of flour during the kneading process.

My kneaded dough ball after it had rested 10 minutes (although I don't know why it needed to rest; I was the one doing all the work). Eight to 10 minutes of kneading and my arms look tons better. No weight lifting needed if you do this everyday.

At this point I stopped to start prepping the "chicken and" part of the chicken and noodles.

Chicken and Noodles

3 chicken legs (thigh-drumstick piece) (about 2 pounds)

3 cups water

2 bay leaves

1 tsp dried thyme, crushed

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 1/2 cups chopped onions (3 medium)

2 cups sliced carrots (4 medium)

1 cup sliced celery (2 stalks)

3 cups wide noodles (6 ounces)

1 cup loose-pack frozen peas

2 cups milk

1/2 tsp salt

3 Tbsp all-purpose flour

1. Skin chicken. In a 4 1/2-quart Dutch oven combine chicken, water, bay leaves, thyme, the 1/2 tsp salt, and the pepper. Add onions, carrots, and celery. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, covered, for 20 to 30 minutes or until chicken is tender and no longer pink. Discard the bay leaves. Remove chicken from Dutch oven; cool slightly. Remove meat from bones; discard bones. Chop chicken; set aside.
2. Bring broth mixture to boiling. Add noodles; cook for 5 minutes. Stir in frozen peas, 1 1/2 cups of the milk, and the 1/2 tsp salt.
3. In a screw-top jar combine the remainging 1/2 cup milk and the flour. Cover and shake until smooth; stir into noodle mixture. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Stir in chopped chicken. Cook and stir for 1 to 2 minutes more or until mixture is heated through.

Makes 6 servings.

Chicken and noodles ingredients (minus, of course, the noodles). All I really had time to do while waiting for the dough to rest was to get out these ingredients and cut my onion. Then it was back to focusing on the noodle dough.

I'm not sure how you're supposed to divide the dough into 4 equal parts but this seemed like the simplest way to me.

You most definitely can roll you dough out like it says to in the recipe but since I have a pasta machine I decided to use it exclusively this time. It worked really well and saved me some time.

I don't know if you can read them but on the knob on the left is a series of numbers. Those numbers tell you how thick the pasta sheet will be.

This is one of the first times through the machine. You start at the largest setting (7) and work your way down to the setting you'd like. I decided, quite arbitrarily, on 3 this time. I had to run the pasta through at least once (if not twice) at each of the settings in between to keep it smooth and even. Last time I learned that step was very important or you end up with lumpy/stretched dough.

My four portions of dough "resting."

While the dough rested, I got the chicken and other ingredients into the pot. Here it is right before I brought it up to a boil. After it was good and boiling, I turned down the heat, stuck a lid on it (I also started boiling some potatoes for mashed potatoes), and once again returned my attention to my noodle dough.

After figuring out how to attach the cutting head (which is embarrassingly simple for how long it took me), I started cutting the noodles. I simply used the fettucine setting because that's about how wide I like my noodles for this recipe. Cut, cut, cut.

After cutting the fettucine, I then cut them down to the length I wanted using kitchen scissors. Simple but effective.

This recipe makes double the noodles you'll need for the chicken and noodles recipe so I laid out the rest of the noodles to dry and freeze for the next time I make this.

Since these are fresh noodles instead of dry or frozen, I cut the cooking time down from 5 minutes to 2 before adding the milk. My husband does not like peas (and I don't like watching him pick them out), so I omit them in my version.

I bet you if I ever thought about keeping a screw-top jar, I could find one easily but I never think about needing one until I read it in step 3. I just use a fork to mix in the flour. I haven't had any issues with lumps or anything so we'll say that it's a fine substitution.

The final product: this is probably one of the best meals I've made. It's creamy and warm and absolutely delicious. I served mine over mashed potatoes but it's just as good plain. For all the extra work that goes into making my own noodles, they are well worth it. I can't remember a time where I've had better noodles; neither can my husband. Their flavor is incredible but it's the texture that really sets them apart. They are delicate and light which is a great compliment to the creaminess of the rest of this dish. I don't know if I can go back to the frozen or even Amish noodles I've used before in this dish.