Chicken and noodles without a starter?

[Reds]

I have noodles. I have chicken. I have your standard spices. I have one can of chicken broth and one can of cream of mushroom soup...no cream of chicken. I have no chicken soup starter our boillon cubes. I have no corn starch (I think the elves took it because I swear I bought some not too long ago...)

Can I still make chicken and noodles?

[AmberC]

Hmm...use the can of broth and have soup? Hubby would use the can of cream of mushroom soup, but I'd rather go hungry than eat anything containing mushrooms.

[Reds]

I found my corn starch and did some experimenting...I've got "stuff" in my crock pot, so we'll see!

oh, I LOVE Mushrooms

[Reds]

Ok, barf.

It wasn't good.

[snaffle]

First put the cut up chicken in a large pan...and just enough water to cover it.
add about a tablespoon of sea salt...
tsp of pepper..
couple tablespoons of dried onions..
and boil it until done.
debone it and put the chicken back in the pan with the water.

Be VERY careful of those little bones on the back and the legs..
you can try your best to debone and still find one in your mouth when eating. .I no longer bother to debone legs.. I throw them in the trash

As your noodles are cooking.. you can pour in a thick pasty mixture of corn starch and water.. or flour and water...
to thicken it up.

If you have rolled out your own noodles.. they might have enough flour on them to thicken the liquid to a gravy.

If anyone else uses an herb that flavors chicken and noodles..
please share

[Mary Ann]

Chicken simply demands sage and thyme, and a bay leaf tucked in! And yeah, the only 'starter' you need is a chicken. A GOOD chicken.

I don't use quite that much salt, but I wait until a little while before serving to add it. Since I may want to reduce and concentrate the stock, I don't want a gallon's worth of salt in a quart of stock.

I do mine a bit differently. I save all raw backs and necks in a ziploc bag in the freezer until I have enough to make stock. I also do something like, say, make roast chicken on a cone on one day, eat that, and then bone what's left. Meat goes in the fridge to be chopped later for soup. The bones go in the stock pot and are barely covered with water and are simmered on the lowest heat possible with the lid ajar. You don't want stock to boil or it develops a slightly bitter tinge. Then after a few hours, when the liquid is golden, I strain the stock out. You can dump it into a bowl and hold a strainer to dump it back through, or scoop it out with a slotted spoon--- your choice, and your tolerance for little iffy looking pieces. Then in the clear stock I add some thyme, sage, a bay leaf (two if they're small) and continue to reduce it. In a little saute pan I make a mire poix, or a mixture of finely chopped shallots or onions, finely chopped carrots, and finely chopped celery. This is cooked in butter (or olive oil, if you're being very good) until fragrant and clearish, and is then added to the pot. This little step gives you a lot of development of the flavors, and adds to the complexity of the taste. When the stock is rich and fragrant, I salt to taste, add noodles and bring the temp up just long enough to simmer them tender, and then throw the diced chicken back in right before serving. The soup stock heats the chicken pieces back up really fast, and they don't get all rubbery from cooking the carp out of them.

If you need them thick, use a roux of flour and butter. Do you know how to make a roux? Put some unsalted butter in that little pan you dumped the veggies out of, and melt it over low heat. Throw in some flour and stir it while it cooks. You want to keep it moving so the flour doesn't brown, but that it cooks and soaks up the butter. Each one of those tiny granules of flour gets coated with butter, and will stay separate (no lumps!) when you stir it into your stock. Add only what you want; you can refrigerate the rest and use it another time to thicken something else. The flour soaks up liquid and plumps, thereby thickening your stock. And we all know the butter adds richness.

[Reds]

I just need someone to take me shopping and then spend the day WITH me making this crap so I learn.

[Mary Ann]

Well the first thing I'd tell you is don't buy your herbs in a grocery store. They come in eyedropper sized bottles and cost the moon. For only a little more you can buy a POUND of herbs from places like herbalcom.com and put them in your own glass jar. You'll have enough for you and another family (or two). They're super fresh, and it makes herbs cheeeeeep!

Also, don't get your chicken at a grocery store; they taste funky. If you can find somebody who'll sell you some free range birds, they taste better in a recipe like this, and you'll have almost NO fat to skim off. Otherwise, get them from a high quality butcher shop like Inboden's in DeKalb. They specialize in excellence.

And stuff like this sort of food is easy and forgiving. You don't have to have exact amounts, you can make it anyhow if you're out of, say, celery; it'll still be tasty. And you don't have to babysit a meal like this; just watch it from time to time.

[snaffle]

I save all the backs.. necks.. and wings..
put them in freezer bags..
and give the dogs one every week. (1/2 frozen)

never have to have their teeth cleaned at the vet clinic

[Frostym]

Great ideas, everybody.

What a nice thing to know about where to buy big bunches of herbs. I can never have enough basil. Thanks!

My secret when boiling or baking a chicken is to use a whole frying chicken. It is young, tender, and cooks quickly. To me baking or boiling a hen is more trouble than cooking a turkey. Nasty, tough things. My other hint is to put in a dash or two of worstershire sauce on the chicken. Yum, it makes the gravy or stock so rich.

You need a simple cook book or two. When I was young and newly married, I loved the "I Hate To Cook Book." Simple recipes, easy to do, and funny. There's a magazine you can buy at the supermarket check-out called Woman's World. It has awesome simple recipes that start exactly like you listed- a chicken, a can of soup, noodles. Now what? It tells you. It's called the "No Time To Shop Supper."

Also, do you have a crockpot? Talk about yummy and easy. You can throw some stuff in, turn it on, go out and ride all afternoon and come home with the house smelling delicous and food read to eat.

Have fun, sweetie. Good luck, Stella.

[AmberC]

I buy Amish chicken. Very tasty. And lucky for me, they sell it at the grocery store! About a year ago, they started selling it. Just a couple different packages next to the Tyson. Then about half of the chicken section was Tyson and half Amish. Now? My grocery store doesn't even sell Tyson, it's all Amish! Yummy!