Danish Chicken Noodles over Mashed Potatoes

One of my favorite foods that my mother made was homemade chicken noodles served over mashed potatoes. She said they were Danish and got the recipe from her mother. I remember helping her unroll them on the countertop to let them dry. I remember sneaking bits to eat before they were cooked, and I remember loving them oh so much over mashed potatoes. 

 

Chanel & Rebecca's making the noodles (click on image to get to the video)

I wondered what my siblings remembered about this dish. I found out that they too remember unrolling the long noodles to let them dry and getting to eat the bits and pieces that weren't long noodles. 

Chanel rolling out the dough

Nanette wrote: "Mother’s homemade noodles over mashed potatoes were my favorite and I requested them on most of my birthdays. I have one early, specific memory associated with them though. 

In about 1968 or 1969, we were living in Chicago. Mother was rolling out her noodles on a floury countertop. She let me climb up and sit on the counter across from her. I believed I was helping her. A slim, black AM radio sat next to us playing popular music of the time. Mother cheerfully chatted with me while she rolled her dough and then cut it into noodles, handing me bits and pieces every so often. A few times she let me have an entire noodle. I liked the dough about as much as the finished noodles and potatoes. 

 I didn’t pay much attention to the music coming from the little radio until the song, “Yesterday,” started to play. As Paul McCartney strummed his guitar and sang, I began to feel melancholy. I remember watching my mother’s bowed head and I suddenly wondered why I felt like crying. It was the first time I consciously thought about how music affected my feelings. Everything was perfect in that moment…the noodles, my mother and the melody. 

Many years later, before we were married, Gary and I visited his sister, Pat. I was nervous about meeting his family for the first time, but we were greeted at the door by the smell of chicken soup and by her husband who informed us that Pat was in the kitchen. 

We found her stirring a pot of homemade chicken noodles which she served to us over mashed potatoes. It turns out that he also has ancestors who hail from Denmark. True love and homemade noodles!" 

Chanel unrolling the noodles

Melinda wrote: "I remember the first time I had them I was very skeptical that it would be any good but Nan and Mom both said I would love it and I believed them. I remember mom fixing them only a few times — special occasions. Rolling out the dough, rolling up the dough, cutting it into unreliable strips, helping unroll the strips, stealing bits of dough. Then the deliciousness that followed." 

Jessica wrote: "I always asked for it on my birthday as well. I told my Sunday School class about it just after Mom died. When my birthday came around that year a random sister showed up with homemade chicken noodle soup. It wasn’t Mom’s. But it was a sweet gesture."

Jamie had mom's recipe card AND she created a gluten free version: 

Judy's Danish Chicken and Noodles 

Chicken: 

• Select 2 1/2 - 5 pound chicken; disjointed or leave whole; cover with hot water; add 2 tsp salt. Cook slowly 1 hour or till tender. Remove Chicken and set aside.

Noodles: 

• 1 beaten egg & 1/2 teaspoon salt; 2 tablespoon evaporated milk; 1 cup sifted flour. 
• Combine egg, salt, milk, add enough flour to make stiff dough. 
• Roll VERY THIN on floured surface; let stand 20 min. 
• Roll up and slice 1/8 inch thick; spread out and dry 2 hrs. (or less) 
• Drop into boiling chicken broth cook 10 min, add boned chopped chicken or serve chicken on the side. Makes 3 cups uncooked noodles. 

Noodles are traditionally served over mashed potatoes. 

Jaime's Gluten Free Noodles: 

To make it GF I simply replace the flour with Bob's red mill 1 to 1. However, the GF stuff is hard to roll out, so it helps to add 2tbl of Xanthum gum to help roll it out, and you don't have to let it sit for 2 hours, If it's really being difficult I drop the dough in and make it chicken and dumplings. 

My version: 

Noodles 

• 2 cups flour 
• 3 egg yolks 
• 1 egg 
• 2 tsp salt 
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup water 

• Mix flour and salt in a bowl. Make a well in the center and add eggs. Mix everything together adding water until it holds together and makes a ball. Knead until smooth and then roll out onto flour covered surface until it's the desired thickness. Once it is at the right thickness roll (like a jelly roll) into a log. Use a very sharp knife to cut dough into strips. Unroll the strips and place on floured surface to dry. 
  

• When dry (or not) add to boiling chicken broth 12-15 minutes or until tender. 

• When noodles are almost done, add cooked leftover chicken pieces and serve over mashed potatoes. 

Chicken 

• I usually use a leftover roasted chicken or turkey carcass to create this soup. If I don't have time to cook soup within two or three days of serving a roast chicken dinner I will put the carcass and all leftover bits and bobs (onions, herbs, uneaten chicken pieces) in a freezer bag (double bag) and pop it into the freezer for later. 
• Thaw frozen chicken carcass in refrigerator overnight. Put chicken carcass in large pot, add water to cover. I usually roughly chop a small onion, sage, thyme and a little garlic and add to the pot. Simmer till the chicken comes off the bones. I then strain the broth into another pot and pick through the strainer for the good chicken pieces. I set aside the chicken pieces to use later. If there is a lot of leftover chicken on the carcass I will sometimes pull it off before making the broth and set it aside to add later. Once the noodles have been cooked in the broth I will add all the chicken chunks. 
• Put the broth back on the stove and bring to boil, cook noodles. 
• If I want to up the vegetable content I zap frozen veggies in the microwave and add them along with the chicken at the end.

So yummy: