Chicken Stew & Noodles

I learned the hard way to cook my noodles separately from my soup stocks because I don't like mushy noodles.

Please note from my Cheesy Broccoli & Rice post that I don't like mushy rice, either.

Other than that, I am occasionally easy to get along with. :)

This past week I wanted to make a chicken stew but I didn't have a whole chicken to play with. I did have a family size monster pack of skinless, boneless chicken breasts (and God bless those chicken workers that filet these for us. They earn every bit of their paycheck!)

Boiling the chicken works, but leaves a lean broth. I have chicken base, but I wanted the chicken to have a roasted flavor and texture, so I roasted it first:

I sprayed the pan with cooking oil spray, fit the cleaned chicken breasts in, then sprinkled them with Roasted Garlic & Herb seasoning, sea salt and pepper....

Baked at 350 for about an hour until the tops where looking "roasty". Not dry and crusty, but that nice golden/tan roasted look. I used the broth from the roasting to add to chicken broth. (I made mine with water and Tone's Chicken Base, but you can buy the chicken broth if you prefer.)

I used three of the big chicken breasts for the stew. I cut them up, tossed them into the broth...

Then thickened the broth with a 1:3 flour/water mixture... I didn't want it super thick, but thick enough to be more stew-like than soup-like.

Then potatoes. I peeled and cut about 8 medium potatoes (because that's what was in the bag!) and tossed them in to cook. The starch of the potatoes helps thicken the gravy base, too.

Added parsley and black pepper, the coarse kind because I like that punch, but any kind  is fine. Pepper brings out the essence of chicken. (I heard that someplace, and I didn't even know that chicken had essence. Learn something new every day.) At the end I added a small bag of mixed veggies to add color and taste...

And here are the egg noodles, cooked on the side:

Nothing fancy.... but so amazingly delicious! A crowd pleaser for sure and the hardest part was peeling potatoes.

We spent our quiet New Year's with some family... and did a fancy dinner that was somewhat flawed, but the plates and napkins looked fancy and the kids didn't notice... :) Sometimes I fall short on my Pinterest-friendly presentations.

EEK!

Wishing you all an amazing 2020 and looking forward to sharing all kinds of things this year. Books... fun... faith... and food!

USA TODAY Bestselling author Ruth Logan Herne writes beautiful stories of faith, hope and love for multiple publishers and is absolutely thrilled that her midlife career change landed her in the realm of the publishing industry where she could use a lifetime of nametag and hairnet jobs to create absolutely unforgettable characters and settings. She loves talking with readers and writers! Hang out with her on Facebook, visit her website ruthloganherne.com, send her an email at loganherne@gmail.com or jive with her at the Yankee Belle Cafe on Thursdays, a fun, low-key blog where she and a bunch of other wonderful ladies talk about life, food, kids, homes and all the little things that make a day a day!

Chicken Stew for Fall... or anytime!

My son Seth married his beautiful bride Lacey at harvest festival/I love fall style wedding at the Genesee Country Village and Museum in Mumford, NY.

Now I won't mention here that Seth HATED it when I took him to the museum and village as a kid.

He then ended up becoming a history teacher and getting married there.

God has a GREAT sense of humor!

The dinner caterer did a great presentation and served chicken stew and beef stew in Big Hollowed Out Pumpkins.

Yes, the Pumpkins were the soup tureens! And it was awesome!

Well, we've got pumpkins galore, but I didn't use them for serving.... I used Revere Ware! But here's a fun and fairly easy way to do a roasted chicken stew when you don't have leftover roast chicken, but you want the stew!

This made 5 quarts, so feel free to cut recipe in half as needed:

4 large chicken breasts

1 gallon water
1/3 cup Chicken base
Garlic to taste
Parsley to taste
Pepper to taste (I'm keeping these obscure because the chicken base is going to give your stock a nice, rich taste and it's already salty. I added about a tablespoon of granulated garlic, three tablespoons of parsley and about a tablespoon and a half of pepper. Pepper and chicken stew/soup dishes are amazing together!)

Place chicken breasts in shallow baking dish. Season as desired. I used some salt/pepper/chopped onion. Add about 1 cup of water, cover and bake for about 40 minutes.

Make soup base by mixing chicken base with water, adding seasonings, and whisking. Then heat to boiling.

While heating, peel 4-5 lbs. of potatoes, and about 2-3 pounds of carrots. Cut into chunk sized pieces.

Add to boiling chicken stock.

Bring back to boiling. Reduce heat slightly and cook until potatoes and carrots are just about done, almost fork tender.

Add celery, mushrooms, corn at this time, if desired. I added celery and fresh corn cut off the cob. I dropped the corn into the chicken bath until it changed to dark gold, then fished it out (with tongs, not Dave's fishing line!) cooled it, and sliced off the corn. The corn and celery give a nice background "crunch" to balance the stewiness of everything else.

Cut corn from cob.... or just throw in a bag of frozen corn, LOL!

When chicken is done, cut or fork it into bite-sized chunks and add chicken and drippings to soup/stew pan.

Mix 2 cups water with about 1/2 - 2/3 cup of flour. Whisk together until smooth, about a minute.

Slowly pour flour/water into stew pot, stirring with big spoon, until desired thickness is reached.

Turn off heat.

Let sit about ten minutes.

This can be used a pot pie filling.... (if you add a package of mixed veggies, it will look like pot pie filling, too) or stew straight from the pot, or as the base for a rich, Sunday-dinner style Chicken and biscuits.

It is amazingly good! And when you heat up the leftovers, do it gently, do not forget that your new burner is a "power" burner and scorch the bottom.

:)

And here we have some fun fall pics!!!!

ZZ, helping me on the farm:

Our little front yard water garden... always a good place for frog hunts!

Hello, Pumpkin!

And it wouldn't be a day without checking in with The Mighty Finn!!! First, "Fearless"... Those short, little legs are so cute and stubby and brave!!!

And here... Studying marine biology for future generations!