Grandma Kauchak’s Chicken and Noodles

My paternal grandmother (Evelyn Lynch Kauchak) cooked for 13 children and a farmer husband from the chickens, milk and vegetables produced on their sparse farm.  Her recipe for chicken and noodles has all the wonderous ingredients that kept farm families fed, but may not be as suitable for our more contemporary (read: sedentary) lifestyles.

• 1 whole chicken cut up
• 6 whole carrots
• 4 stalks of celery
• 2 whole onions
• handful of parsley (fresh or dried)
• salt
• pepper
• wide Amish style noodles (goulash or klusky noodles)
• 1 cup cream
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 3 tablespoons butter (or margarine)

Barely cover the cut up chicken pieces with water and add 3 cut up carrots (can be fairly large chunks) 3 cut up stalks of celery (with leaves), 1 chopped onion, parsley, salt and pepper.  Bring to a boil, then simmer until the chicken is fully cooked (about 45 minutes.)

(Cousin Rita uses a 6 qt. pressure cooker to speed things up.)

Take out the chicken and set aside.  Strain out all the vegetables, keeping the broth and discarding the vegetables.  Skim fat from the broth.   Cut up the chicken into bite sized pieces, discarding any remaining bones, skin, fat or tendons.

Bring the broth to a simmer again and add the remainder of the carrots, celery and onion chopped into bite size pieces.  (Do not add the chicken back yet.)  Cook until the vegetables are tender.

Cook noodles separately.

In a separate large pan, mix 3 tablespoons flour with 3 tablespoons melted butter or margarine.  Cook slightly.  Add 1 cup cream.  Stir until thick.  Thin with strained broth from the vegetables until it is the desired consistency.  (Rita says that you can substitute half and half or milk, but the cream is what makes this taste so good.  Grandma Kauchak used cream.)

Add the chicken, vegetables and noodles to the cream. Enjoy!

(Here in Indiana this is sometimes served over mashed potatoes.  So many carbs, but so delicious!)