Description
Creamy Chicken Noodles is the ultimate homey comfort food meal that the entire family will love. You can go all out and make it 100% from scratch or use shortcut suggestions from this post to get it on the table in about half an hour. Either way, no cream of chicken soup is needed. This Chicken and Noodles recipe will be a beloved family meal whichever method you choose.
Ingredients
Units
Scale
- 4 chicken breasts, pre-cooked and cut into bite-size pieces
- 12 cups homemade chicken broth (or your preferred store brand)
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1/4 cup salted butter
- half recipe of homemade egg noodles, half recipe in NOTES, or (around 18 oz. of frozen egg noodles or 16 oz bag dry egg noodles)
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1/2 cup cold milk or water
Instructions
- Be sure your chicken broth is flavorful enough when you add it to the pot. Any flavor your noodles will have will come from this broth. If it’s bland now, your noodles will be bland when they’re finished. So taste. Does the broth need salt and pepper? Do you need to add chicken bouillon or chicken base? If so, add them now. Taste again and when it’s where you want it you can start heating the broth.
- Bring the chicken broth to a boil over medium high heat. Be sure to use a large enough stock pot or pan so the broth won’t boil over as it’s heated.
- Add the 1 cup of whole milk and the butter to the broth as it’s heating up.
- Once the chicken broth is at a full rolling boil, add the egg noodles you have chosen. When I use fresh homemade noodles, I gather them a handful at a time and add them to the boiling chicken broth, rather than dumping them all in at once. That helps prevent them from clumping together. With dried or frozen noodles it won’t matter as much. You can just pour them into the boiling chicken broth.
- Stir to make sure all the egg noodles are separated and then reduce the heat to medium, to allow the noodles to cook. Which noodles you chose will determine how long this takes. The frozen noodles will take the longest and homemade pasta or dried egg noodles will cook more quickly. Again, taste and be sure the noodles are at the level of doneness and texture that you want.
- It’s time to stir in the chicken when the noodles are cooked through and tender. The chicken is already cooked, so, all that’s needed is to warm it through in the broth. It will take 3 to 5 minutes, tops. If you made homemade chicken broth, use the chicken you cooked to make it. If you’re using a rotisserie chicken, it will heat quickly, too. If you are using Slow Cooker Chicken Breasts or Baked Chicken Breasts that you have already prepared and stored in the fridge or freezer, they may take one or two more minutes to heat from cold.
- Tear or cut the chicken into bite-size pieces. That is our preference, at least. We aren’t huge fans of shredded chicken, here, but if that’s what your family loves, that’s definitely the way you should do it. I cut large, meaty bites of chicken to add to our homemade chicken and noodles.
- Reduce the heat to medium low, once the chicken has been added.
- Look at your chicken and noodles, now. You’ve done it! It’s chicken and noodles. Chicken noodle soup! You could literally eat this, as is. But, take it next level.
- The last step to make this chicken and noodles creamy is to whisk together the flour and cold milk (or water) in a bowl or measuring cup. Whisk until it is smooth with no lumps and then add it to the pot of simmering chicken and noodles.
- Stir and continue cooking for 1 or 2 minutes, until the broth has thickened and become creamy.
- Do your final taste test. Salt? Pepper?
- Serve.
Notes
Half Recipe for Homemade Pasta
(For a detailed picture tutorial of making homemade pasta, visit my Homemade Pasta blog post.)
- 4 large eggs
- 295 grams All Purpose Flour
- Stir the flour and eggs together until they begin to form a shaggy mass.
- Once it has come together, into that shaggy mass, pour everything out onto a lightly floured work surface or counter top.
- Knead the dough, pressing it with the heel of your hand, folding it over, kneading, fold until it is velvety smooth. This will take around 5–10 minutes.
- Cover (I just set a bowl over the top, right there on the counter.) and allow to rest for about 20 minutes. The resting period is important, so the gluten can relax and the homemade noodles will be easy to roll.
- After the rest period, roll and cut the homemade pasta dough.
- Prep Time: 30 min
- Cook Time: 3 hours 30 min
- Category: Soup, Pasta, Chicken, Main Dish
- Method: Stove Top
- Cuisine: American