What is the ultimate Comfort Food? We each define our own Comfort Foods, which we develop growing up, depending on what foods your family had that brought you good memories and of course good flavor!
For me, the ultimate Comfort Food has to be my mom's Chicken and Noodles, with homemade egg noodles, served over a helping of real mash potatoes. It's a rib sticking, delicious meal, which brings me back to some great and fond memories growing up with each bite.
The noodles take time to prepare, and simmering a whole chicken and then de-boning it probably makes some people say "oh, not for me", but let's not be lazy, the taste and love showed by the effort of doing it right will far outweigh anything you can do from a package or (gulp) fast food.
Plan this dish ahead of time, and make the dough for the noodles a day before, keeping in the refrigerator in a covered bowl overnight. This will allow the glutton to relax, and makes for a much easier time rolling out the dough. But you CAN make this same day, it will just be harder to roll out.
Mom's Homemade Chicken and Noodles
For the Egg Noodles:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt (or a "pinch")
2 large eggs, beaten
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon butter (cold)
In a large bowl, stir together the flour and salt. Add the beaten egg, milk, and butter. Knead dough until smooth, about 5 minutes. If dough is too flakey, add a little bit more milk if needed. Let rest in a covered bowl for at least two hours, or overnight.
On a floured surface, roll out to 1/8 or 1/4 inch thickness. I find it a lot easier to divide the dough into two and roll out each separately, saves space. Cut into desired lengths and shapes, i simply use a pizza roller. Or if you have a pasta machine, go for it.
Allow to air dry before cooking for at least two hours. I simply hang the noodles on hangers, works really well.
Cook fresh pasta in a large pot with the chicken stock from when you simmered the chicken (see below). Cook until al dente, and remember that fresh pasta does not take as long to cook as store bought.
For the Chicken:
1 Whole Chicken
1 tablespoon salt
1 onion, sliced in half, peeling left on
1 rib celery, roughly chopped
1 carrot, roughly chopped
2 springs fresh rosemary
8 whole peppercorns
1 bay leaf
Mashed potatoes (your recipe)
Place chicken in large pot, add all the ingredients, and add cold water to cover the chicken.
Place on stove top over med-hi heat until it comes to a boil, then reduce heat to about medium-low, cover and allow to simmer for at least an hour. Make sure it is simmering and not boiling. You want to have some bubbles, but not a rapid boil. This will keep the chicken moist. I usually let the chicken simmer until it is falling off the bone.
Once chicken is done, remove chicken from pot, it may fall apart, which is just fine, and place it on a large platter, and put in the freezer for 15 minutes so it will cool down enough to de-bone.
While the chicken is cooling off in the freezer, strain the stock, and return to the pot, and start making mashed potatoes. You can actually make the mashed potatoes earlier, just set aside in a covered bowl. The heat from the chicken and noodles will heat them up just fine.
Once the chicken is cool enough to handle, separate the skin and bones from the meat, being careful to leave out the smaller bones.
Get the stock to a boil, and then add your egg noodles. If you don't feel you have enough stock, simply add some water to make up the difference. When noodles are done, add the chicken meat and mix. The flour used in making the noodles should thicken up the stock some.
Season to taste! Serve over mashed potatoes.
