Indiana Noodles?

Does anyone know anything about chicken noodles?

My girlfriend raves about the noodles her family (from Terre Haute, Indiana) makes for Thanksgiving and Christmas. She describes them as egg noodles cooked with chicken and chicken stock and says her family eats them over their turkey and even over their mashed potatoes(!).

Has anyone else heard of this? Is this an Indiana thing? A Midwestern thing? (Or maybe just a thing with her family....) Any intelligence on this dish would be appreciated.

My favorite chicken and noodles recipe:

Amish Chicken Casserole

8 ounces noodles, cooked
2 cups cooked chicken, cubed
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup milk
1 can mushrooms (I use fresh or Trader Joe's frozen)
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup margarine (I use butter!)
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Melt margarine, then add flour and stir until smooth. Gradually add milk and broth, then seasonings and mushrooms. Combine chicken, cooked noodles and prepared sauce. Put into an ungreased 13 x 9-inch baking pan and top with Parmesan cheese. Bake, uncovered, for 30 minutes.

Amish Noodles

3 eggs
About 2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

Beat 3 eggs until frothy. Add flour and stir until of dough texture. Knead until smooth. Turn into floured cutting board. Roll dough, turning often until thin. Let noodle dough dry for 45 minutes. Turn dough and dry 1/2 hour.

Cut into noodles size. Drop into boiling beef or chicken stock, reduce heat and cook at rolling boil about 20 minutes. Season to taste.

Here's where I found it:

http://www.recipegoldmine.com/index.html

Every Thanksgiving the s/o's mom makes this:

Cook Amish egg noodles in chicken broth until tender. Season.

IMO: Amish egg noodles aren't good for much else.

Sounds like the same dish. Where does the s/o's Mom live (or where is she from)?

She's in southern IL. Egg noodles are an Amish staple all over. They're also pretty big business for some communities. There was a Food Network show awhile back that spotlighted one of these noodle-making families.

It's the rare country kitsch store that doesn't carry them, but as mentioned above, they're easy to make. The s/o's mom just buys hers at the IGA.

My grandmother--from a small town west of Springfield, IL--used to make this dish. It was one of my favorites because she made her own noodles which were thicker and chewier than the store-bought noodles my mother used to serve.

JanD wrote:My grandmother--from a small town west of Springfield, IL--used to make this dish. It was one of my favorites because she made her own noodles which were thicker and chewier than the store-bought noodles my mother used to serve.

Oh, yes. My maternal grandmother used to make what we called "chicken & noodles" (note the ampersand), which also had home-made egg noodles, similar to what you are describing. The sauce was similar to what Fraggle describes, and yes, we would often put them right on top of the mashed potatoes (O.K., some of us would - it was optional). I wasn't a huge fan (my brother ate enough for both of us anyway), but everybody loved it.

Regarding the provenance of the dish, I don't know how far it goes back (if at all) before my grandmother. She grew up and lived her whole life (about 1895 to 1992) in northeast Indiana (Grant County). German-American ancestry (Ruble family, who settled in Pennsylvania in 1728, moved to Indiana probably mid to late 19th century). It's funny this topic should come up here, as I've been thinking I ought to ask my mother how to make this dish, which neither she nor anyone else in our family has made since my grandmother's death 14 years ago. I know she can make it, and I'll be seeing her this weekend, so if her memory is good, I'll try to post the recipe here in a couple of days.

JiLS wrote:It's funny this topic should come up here, as I've been thinking I ought to ask my mother how to make this dish, which neither she nor anyone else in our family has made since my grandmother's death 14 years ago. I know she can make it, and I'll be seeing her this weekend, so if her memory is good, I'll try to post the recipe here in a couple of days.

Learn from knowledgable hands whenever you can. My Oma died when I was 15. It took me several years of tweaking to replicate her signature dishes. For a long time I was the only one who knew. I have since written them up and distributed them to my cousins.

I tell my nieces if there is anything I make they especially like, I will gladly teach it to them.

You are lucky your Mom is in the know!

Regards,

My aunt had a farm in Indiana and this was one of her staple dishes. I can recall her rolling the noodle dough out onto a huge board. Sadly she passed when I was 8 or 9 and I never got any of her recipes. She was an excellent 'farmhouse cook' according to her husband.