Old Family Recipe Missing Information
I found my grandmother's recipe card for her mother's chicken and noodles. I loved this as a kid & really would like to try making it, but it only tells how to make the noodles. Maybe this is a silly question, but I'm not sure what to do once the noodles have dried. I remember as a child, my grandmother taking an egg, adding the flour gradually, mixing with her hands to create the dough, slicing it so thinly for the noodles and leaving them on the cutting board to dry. Then I'd go play and later it was dinner time and I was being served the noodles, now with chunks of chicken in a sort of glaze, I guess. It wasn't a gravy, but I don't know what else she did. The chicken was so moist and tender. Should I put the noodles in boiling water and dump in the chicken too? Or bake the chicken and add it at the end when the noodles are almost cooked? Or something else I'm not thinking of? I don't know how I ever missed seeing the rest of her preparation and I don't know why the recipe just lists how to make the noodles. It makes me think it's supposed to be so obvious a recipe isn't needed, but I am a novice cook and need any help you could provide. Thank you! -- Chris
5 Comments
I’m kind of thinking poach the chicken and set it aside, make a cornstarch slurry and set aside, maybe boil the noodles in the poaching water? Then throw the chicken in with some broth and the corn starch and add the chicken back in.
Another thing that can seem like a glaze is just good old butter, and plenty of it!
But one good way to search for a recipe is to date and place it, then search food history.
Do you know or can you figure out when and where she learned to cook, in general or that particular dish?
Her teens or twenties? From her family or her husband's? What national or cultural background in the family? Etc etc.
With those clues, often you can locate a tradition or a cuisine, if not the exact recipe.
Good luck! :)
And do report back if you find it...