Chicken noodle soup is the topic of the month, folks. Are you thinking “why is this crazy lady blogging about chicken noodle soup in April”? My response: welcome to Minnesota, it’s snowing!
I have been thinking a lot about how my grandmothers cooked, and I realized for the most part, they did not cook from scratch. However, I never could turn down grandma Doyle’s homemade pies or grandma Erkel’s homemade potato soup. I spoke to my mother about the subject, who also indicated my great grandmothers only occasionally cooked from scratch when she was growing up. I made the stunning realization that it has been more than two generations dating back to the time when people cooked what they had on hand, and made unprocessed food from scratch.
Cooking is cathartic for me, I enjoy it as much as my deep love of gardening. My heart sings when I serve people food that they can really enjoy. I spend a lot of time prepping when we have a dinner gathering and even more time researching new and unique recipes for special occasions. But, let’s face it, even though I want to cook wholesome delicious over-the-top meals every weeknight, I’m guilty of not making the time after working all day. I frequently find myself taking many short cuts, and grabbing a box of pre-made this or that, in an attempt to make a meal as quickly as possible when I get home. I realize I have options, I could spend time prepping for the week on the weekends, but to be honest, I would rather work on other things.
While I was sitting at home, longing to work in my gardens that were currently being covered up by the snowfall, I decided I wanted to experience first hand, the era when great- grandmothers cooked from scratch. I thought to myself “what is a traditional dish that I could make”? It doesn’t get any more traditional on a chilly snowy evening than chicken noodle soup!
How did I make it?
Homemade poultry seasoning
You can save quite a bit of money by growing and dehydrating your own herbs. A great example is during the winter, my sister-in-law blessed me with a gift of a very large package of basil. This package was so large, I think a family of 20 would not have been able to use it before it went bad. So, I gleefully broke out my dehydrator and dried all of the leaves and stored them in freezer bags for later use (hopefully to can tomato sauce with my garden tomatoes later this summer).
Rather than buying a pre-mixed spice needed for just one recipe, save a few dollars by mixing your own at home with either herbs you have grown yourself, or with seasonings you already have on hand in your spice rack. Homemade poultry seasoning is easy to make, and tastes just like it came from the store.
Basic recipe for poultry seasoning
2 teaspoons dried sage
1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried majoram
3/4 teaspoon ground rosemary
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Store excess in a container with a lid for continued future use
Spatchcocked chicken
Spatchcock is a fancy term for roasted butterflied chicken. The benefit to butterflying is it roasts the bird evenly and much more quickly than the traditional method of roasting. Chicken breasts need to be cooked to a minimum of 150F, while the legs need to come up to a temperature of 175F. Exposing the legs allows them to actually cook a little faster than the breast, creating an even and quicker roast. My favorite part, however, is it also yields extra crispy skin, which happens to be my absolute favorite (and totally unhealthy) part to nibble on.To prepare it for the oven, I cut out the backbone of the chicken. Then I spread the legs out and flipped the bird over. Using my hands, I pressed down firmly on the breast bone, until it cracked and the chicken is fairly flat. I softened 1 stick of butter and liberally mixed in poultry seasoning and diced garlic. I spread all of that fatty flavorful goodness all over the outside of the skin, as well as in-between the skin and meat. After placing it in a roasting pan (with a drip tray) I cooked it at 400F for one hour. If you use a meat thermometer, place it in the thickest part of the leg, away from the bone. You are good to go when you reach 175F. After letting the chicken rest for 10 minutes (places all of those delicious juices back into the meat where it belongs), I peeled all the skin off (I ate most of it, but shared a few precious bites with the hubby) and removed all of the tender meat for safe keeping until later.
Bone stock
I placed the chicken carcass in a pot of water , along with celery, carrots, and onion. I had a bag in the freezer with additional carcass bones and vegetable scraps that I added to the pot (referencing the blog posted in February Katie’s Blog Spot: Homemade Stock). I also added fresh garlic, poultry seasoning, salt, pepper, basil, and bay leaves. The longer you simmer it, the better it tastes. Since I knew it would take me more than one evening to make the soup, I simmered the stock for five hours. I strained out all of the solids and stored the liquid in a non metal container, in the refrigerator overnight. It was getting to be pretty late in the evening, I decided to call it a night and resume the next day.
Egg noodles from Scratch
I will confess up front, I have never tried making any kind of homemade noodles. Once I started researching recipes to try, I realized egg noodles have very few ingredients (flour, salt, egg, milk, and butter). Well, how hard could this be, the process seems pretty simple! There are a lot of recipes available online, I found one that was pretty close to what I wanted, so I altered it to suit my tastes. I measured out all the ingredients first, then began forming the dough.
While I was letting the dough rest a bit, I took out the stock and chicken from the refrigerator, and began heating it back up on low. I cut up a few carrots, and onion, and tossed in another bay leaf. The beautiful part of spicing the spatchcocked chicken, then using it to make the stock, is it was already well seasoned. I didn’t feel like I had to add anything else to the pot.
After the dough was resting for awhile, I took some flour and spread it on my counter. With my trusty (and very old) rolling pin, I rolled out the dough until it was about 1/4 of an inch. I frequently had to stop to flour the rolling pin, the dough really wanted to stick to it. I had a pretty big revelation while completing this task. I TOTALLY understand why our ancestors wore aprons! I was a hot mess. I had flour EVERYWHERE! After rolling the dough, I took a kitchen knife and began slicing it into little strips. I was having a hard time, because the dough wanted to stick to the knife. There had to be an easier way….think Katie, think! Hey! What about using a pizza cutter? It worked like a charm! I laid the strips out to dry for awhile, while the soup was heating back up. Then I tossed them into the pot (a few at a time), and simmered it for approximately 20 more minutes. Voila, it’s ready, FINALLY!
Basic recipe for egg noodles
2 1/2 cups flour
a pinch of salt
2 eggs beaten
1/2 cup milk
1 Tablespoon cold butter
Stir together dry ingredients, then cut the butter until lumps form. Make a well in the middle and our in wet ingredients, and mix just until the dough forms.
Final product and lessons learned
I decided while I was placing all this effort forth for a meal, that I should whip up some homemade garlic cheddar biscuits (yummy). I dished up two bowls for my husband and I and we anxiously dug in to our meal. Over the course of two days, I had logged in 8 hours of cooking time, and I was praying to miss Julia Child that it was worth the large investment. It was…good. No, it was incredible! I am not a boaster of my cooking, but WOW!, it was really out of this world! The broth had a deep rich flavor, the chicken was tender, and the noodles were thick and chewy. It was an incredibly satisfying meal.
I was so excited that I quickly messaged my mom and asked if I could send some to her house for dinner the next evening. I really wanted my parents to try it. I had one serving left that I also packaged up, and snuck it out of the house the next morning to enjoy at lunchtime. I hope my sweet husband wasn’t too upset about that, after all, I ate most of the crispy chicken skin as well. I looked around the kitchen and saw the immense amount of dishes I used during the process, but frankly, was too tired to care much about them that night. My mission was complete, I accomplished my task at hand.
What lessons did I learn? I learned that it really was worth all of the time and effort in order to scratch cook a meal. I learned that people really did spend quite the effort to lovingly prepare each meal for their family in that era. I also felt guilty for complaining to my own mother way too often that I didn’t want to eat the meals she prepared for me, because even if it wasn’t cooked from scratch, she spent her time and effort to put food on the table. And finally, I learned that it is worth making the time to cook from scratch. It was made from unprocessed ingredients that were nutritious and cooked straight from my heart into my husbands stomach.
Until next time folks, happy homesteading!
Katie
