Chicken and Noodles

The recent yo-yo-ing weather patterns have made it a ripe season for the cold and flu viruses, and to combat them we need all the help we can get - vigilant hand-washing, zealous tissue use, and gobs of chicken noodle soup. It’s the perfect cold-weather comfort food, and paired with 7-Up is the quintessential cure-all for those pesky winter ailments!

I absolutely LOVE my mother-in-law’s homemade chicken noodle soup. The way she traditionally prepares it involves roasting a whole fresh chicken in a slow-cooker with chopped celery, carrots, and onion, which results in really tender meat and deliciously flavored veggies. Unfortunately, I usually don’t have the time (or patience!) to prepare it the “real” way, so I take a few shortcuts! Chopping the vegetables ahead of time (it’s always handy to keep a carrot-celery-onion mix at the ready!) and starting with a pre-cooked rotisserie-style chicken really cuts down on prep time for this classic dish.

Ingredients: (~6-8 servings)

~4 cups cooked chicken, shredded (I usually get a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store and peel all the meat off, discarding the skin and bones; however, chicken breast would also work - see this post for tips on cooking chicken breast)
1lb carrots, peeled and sliced

1 large onion, chopped

1 celery heart (~6-8 stalks), sliced

12-16oz egg noodles (I usually use the Amish-style ones for this dish)

4-5 cups low-sodium chicken broth

~1-2 TBSP chopped basil leaves (I used dried)

~1 TBSP oil

~1 TBSP ketchup (optional)

~1 TBSP lemon juice

Salt, pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a large pot. Sauté carrots, onion, and celery until soft, seasoning with salt and pepper to taste. Add the basil and lemon juice, and for a tangy kick, add ketchup.

While the vegetables are cooking, prepare the egg noodles according to the directions on the noodle package. I typically cook them just shy of al dente, since they will be added to the soup and will cook a little more in the broth.

Add the shredded chicken and egg noodles to the vegetables, then pour in the chicken broth and mix well (start with 4 cups broth, then add as needed for desired soup-iness).  Let simmer about 10 minutes. Ladle into bowls and dig in!

~ Karla


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Asian-style Noodle Bowl

I love steaming hot aromatic and delicious Asian broth bowls. However typically they come with a heavy dose of sodium. Not wanting to give up on a favorite and an otherwise healthy meal, I decided to take matters in my own hand and spend some time assembling all the ingredients for a delicious and low sodium Asian bowl. Turns out it wasn’t all that time consuming, and I was slurping my wonderful Asian meal in just about a half hour.

Fixings

Noodles: 1 packet brown rice noodles (or your favorite kind) - cooked

Garlic Mushrooms: Saute 6-8 oz mixed variety of mushrooms with 1 clove of garlic (minced). You don’t necessarily need to use any oil. I started by heating up the mushrooms and garlic with a pinch of salt in a covered non-stick pan. Let the mushrooms sweat for a minute, stir and continue to cook the same way for about 5 minutes. Use a little bit of orange juice or rice wine vinegar to deglaze the pan if required.

Broccoli with Cashews: Saute 1 cup of chopped broccoli with 6-8 roughly chopped cashews and a pinch of salt. I cooked this similar to the mushrooms without any oil and using vinegar to deglaze the pan.

Tofu: Cut 7 oz extra firm tofu into 1” slices. Squeeze out the liquid using paper towels and cut into cubes. Make a marinade with ¼ cup hot water, 1 tsp soy sauce, 1 tsp rice wine vinegar, 1 tsp honey, 2-3 tsp peanut butter. Soak the tofu in marinade and microwave on high for 6-8 minutes. With a nonstick pan on medium-high heat, cook the tofu in a single layer until browned on one side. Flip and cook the opposite side until browned.

Chopped carrots

Chopped green onions

2 Boiled eggs: Hard boil the eggs and cut them in half.

Lemon wedges

Broth: Heat 1.5-2 cups of low sodium vegetable broth (preferably homemade) over high heat. Add a thinly sliced clove of garlic, ½ tsp of grated ginger, 1-2 tsp soy sauce, 1-2 tsp rice wine vinegar, ¼ tsp crushed red pepper, salt to taste. Let the broth come to a boil and take it off the heat.

Assembly: Divide all the fixings into 2-4 bowls. Squeeze lemon juice on top. Add ⅓ - ¾ cup of hot broth to each bowl, and enjoy your flavorful steaming Asian bowl!

~Gayatri

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A healthy noodle bowl with a refreshingly aromatic Asian broth - easy to assemble with the fixings of your choice!http://cooksofcakeandkindness.blogspot.com/2016/01/asian-style-noodle-bowl.html

Posted by The Cooks of Cake and Kindness on Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Quick(er) Hungarian-style Goulash

This flavorful dish is based on a childhood favorite of mine (and, as it turns out, my husband’s), and is just one of the many dishes that convinced me that my mom was the greatest cook ever. Traditionally, goulash is a soup or stew that uses beef, veal, pork, or lamb, seasoned mainly with paprika. In my husband’s family, it is THE birthday dish (along with carrot cake), but it generally takes most of the day to prepare. This modified version of goulash uses chicken instead of the traditional meats, and cuts total cooking time way down - so we can indulge a bit more often!

Ingredients: (about 8 servings)

~1.5 lbs chicken breast

8 oz mushrooms, chopped

~½ onion, roughly chopped

8-16 oz sour cream (I used fat-free)

2-3 Tbsp paprika

ground black pepper and garlic to taste

~1 Tbsp cooking oil to sauté onions and mushrooms

Place chicken breast in a greased baking pan and season with pepper, garlic, and paprika. Cover with parchment paper and bake at 400F for 30-40 minutes. Once cooked, chop or shred the chicken. (Chicken can also be prepared ahead of time.)

Heat oil in a pan over medium heat. Sauté onions and mushrooms until they are soft and most of the released water has cooked off. Add chicken to the pan and season liberally with garlic and paprika. Stir in sour cream a little at a time until the desired consistency is achieved. Let simmer over low heat for about 10-15 minutes.

Serve over a bed of noodles and with your favorite side, such as garlicky oven-roasted asparagus. Yum!

~Karla

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Moderately creamy, flavorful Hungarian-style chicken goulash.http://cooksofcakeandkindness.blogspot.com/2015/07/quicker-hungarian-style-goulash.html
Posted by The Cooks of Cake and Kindness on Monday, July 13, 2015

Glass Noodles

Well, it’s been forever and a day since we’ve posted a recipe! We are both now working at Cummins Inc., in the same group, with the same boss. While we don’t live together anymore (a point of continued negotiation), we still get together to have dinner and frivolously shop and, yes, cook and bake.

My husband (I got married!) and I recently bought a new house (with plenty of basement space for a roommate =P) close to my work, and so I wanted to make something special the first time I used our new kitchen. One of my family traditions is to have a Filipino noodle dish called “pancit” (pronounced pahn-seat) for special occasions and holidays (New Year’s, birthdays, etc) for good luck and longevity, so I thought it fitting to have pancit be the first thing I cooked in our new house.

This recipe is only slightly different than how my mom prepares it. It turns out a bit similar to a lo mein style dish, though the noodles are quite different. We use something we like to call “glass noodles” – they are actually made out of bean thread and you can find them at an Asian specialty store, or sometimes even at a Walmart. The brand I like best comes in a pink mesh bag (other brands are available, but the prep is more involved):

Ingredients:
"Glass" (bean thread) noodles
~1 lb chicken breast (for a vegetarian option, you can use extra firm tofu or a wheat protein called seitan)
1 bag cole slaw mix
Chopped onion (I usually use dried)
Pepper
Garlic powder
Ginger
Soy sauce
Lemon juice
Canola oil

First, soak about half the package of glass noodles in water. While the noodles are soaking, cook the chicken in a pan or skillet over med-hi heat for roughly 7-10 minutes on each side. When the chicken is just done, pull it apart with a fork so you have shredded chicken. Place the chicken back in the pan and season with onion, pepper, garlic, ginger, and a little soy sauce. Let it simmer.

In a larger pot, use canola oil to stir-fry the cole slaw mix for maybe 10-15 minutes – it really depends on how crunchy you want your vegetables! When it’s just about done, season with pepper, garlic, ginger, and maybe ¼ - ½ cup soy sauce. Add a few tablespoons of lemon juice. Add the chicken to the mix and stir it all up.

At this point, the noodles should be ready (the package will direct you to soak for 10 minutes before use, so I just stick them in water before starting on the chicken). Drain the water, and mix the noodles into the chicken and vegetables a handful at a time.

Once everything is mixed up, you can season it further with more soy sauce, lemon juice, pepper, garlic, and ginger to taste. Usually I add ingredients until it smells just noticeably soy-sauce-y but the garlic and pepper also come through. Then, dish up and enjoy!

~Karla