Sunday Dinner

The scent of chicken, wafting from the crockpot in the kitchen keeps bringing my children upstairs to ask when dinner will be ready.  Some days, one wakes up with extra energy and inspiration.  Today was one of those days for me.  I decided to fix a delicious Sunday dinner that we could share around the table tonight.  My mom used to make chicken and noodles often when I was a child.  It was one of my favorite meals she fixed, and I have many fond memories of sitting at the kitchen counter eating that very meal with my family after watching Growing Pains in the living room.  I called her this morning to get the recipe, but she wasn’t home.  Thank heavens for the internet.  I looked up the recipe for chicken in the crockpot, and found it on Tasteofhome.com.  Taste of Home is one of the coolest magazines ever, and I have rarely, if ever had a recipe that wasn’t simply delicious from there.  I will give them most of the credit, but the reviews said it was a little bland, so I doctored it up a bit, and I am making my own homemade noodles with my daughter to go with it.  If you want to make a heartwarming meal for your family, that cooks all day while you relax or work, the recipe is below.

First, make the noodles:

2 to 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour, divided

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 eggs, lightly beaten

1 tablespoon cold water

Directions

Mix 2 cups flour and salt in a deep bowl (for a little healthier version, I substituted ½ c whole wheat flour for ½ c of the flour). Make a well in a center of the flour; add eggs and water. Gradually mix with a wooden spoon until well blended.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->·         <!--[endif]-->Gather into a ball and knead on a floured surface until smooth, about 10 minutes. If necessary, add remaining flour to keep dough from sticking to surface or hands. Divide the dough into thirds. On a lightly floured surface, roll each section into a paper-thin rectangle (this took some muscle, maybe because of the wheat flour).

 Dust top of dough with flour to prevent sticking while rolling.

Roll dough, jelly-roll style. 

Using a sharp knife, cut 1/4-in. slices. Unroll noodles and allow to dry before cooking.

For the chicken and noodles, I put 4 cups water and one can cream of chicken soup in the crock pot, and mixed it.  I added ¼ cup butter, and one chopped onion.  Then I rubbed a chicken with kosher salt, fresh ground pepper, and sage, and place it in the slow cooker.   Next, I put a bay leaf on each side of the chicken, and turned the slow cooker on auto(high four hours then switches to low).  It probably needs to cook about ten hours this way.  Make sure it is done when it is time to eat, food safety is nothing to mess with.  When the ten hours are up, I will take the chicken out, and take a slotted spoon to the broth to make sure there are no little bones that have escaped.  Then I will turn the heat back up to high, and when it is nice and bubbly, I will add the noodles for about 15 minutes.  During this time, cut up the chicken, and add the boneless, skinless pieces back to the crockpot.  Some people eat this on top of mashed potatoes (total naughty comfort food style).  I think I may be naughty tonight and do just that, but a green salad should make it a little less devilish.  I hope someone makes this and enjoys it, and feel free to comment about one of your favorite meals growing up.