Problem: Time consuming. Who has time anymore? Not many, so it becomes rare that most of us can enjoy the pleasure of home made egg noodles.
In my family, we grew up with a comfort food called Chicken and Noodles (Recipe is on this blogger). Mom would spend half the day making the egg noodles for this. Mixing, rolling, cutting, laying out on newspaper to dry...but WOW it was so worth it.
I wanted to be able to have my mom's chicken and noodles with homemade egg noodles more often than once a year tho. So I tried it with store bought packaged egg noodles. Blah. It was just merely eatable, left no comfort in my belly. Wasn't no where near the same.
Then I started to hear about frozen egg noodles. I was intrigued. My brother Rodney told me about them, said they tasted like homemade. I was eager to find them and try them. But, as fate would have it, that item was not available in the area I lived in. So I continued to make my own egg noodles about once a year, feeling glad to have that least.
One day as I was shopping in a newly opened grocery store, I came across an item called Anne's Old Fashioned Flat Dumplings in the frozen section. I was curious about it, I picked up the red and yellow box, turned it over, and my eyes went wide, and I think I let out an audible "woot", because right there on the back of the package, first thing I read, was a recipe for Old Fashioned Chicken and Noodles. I knew I HAD to try this. So I picked me up a whole chicken along with this, and headed home. My day was planned: Going to make Chicken and Noodles with this new frozen dumpling.
I cooked the chicken, made a rich stock from it as well, and opened the package of Anne's Old Fashioned Dumplings. I saw thin, wide strips of noodles, which looked like the raw egg noodles mom used to make, except a lot wider. I used them as they were, added them to the simmering pot of stock, and let them cook.
After the cooking was done, I noticed these noodles really soaked up a LOT of the stock, and became about 3 times as big..so now I had noodles about the size of a postcard. I tasted one, and was pleased as to just how close they did come to homemade egg noodles. I concluded they came close enough to the taste of real homemade egg noodles, that they can be used in place of them when I didn't have the time to make it from scratch.
Anne's dumplings was not as rich as homemade egg noodles, carried a weaker flavor, but it was sure a heck of a lot better than those dried bagged egg noodles. I figured these would do fine in a pinch, for those times I crave Chicken & Noodles, but don't have the time to make my own egg noodles.
As far as the size problem I had with the noodles the first time, I resolved that by simply laying out the noodles on the counter and using a pizza wheel, I simply just cut each noodle into three separate strips, and that seems to of worked out fine.
I did find other frozen noodles, but so far, Anne's seems to be the best. Are there other frozen noodles out there that is better? I honestly don't know, simply because I am sure I haven't tried them all (yet). I am sure anyone who reads this and does know of a product that they enjoy, will let me know, and please do!
In closing, I just want to reiterate that if your are going to make a dish that calls for egg noodles, such as Chicken & Dumplings, its always best to make your own noodles, and that should be your first choice, given you have the time. Use the frozen stuff for those times when you are pressed for time, yet really want that homemade experience. It will not be EXACTLY the same, but it comes pretty darn close.
