Easy noodles & chicken

What to do with a leftover chicken breast or two? Make chicken and noodles for an easy meal.

Start with cutting the chicken up into bite sized chunks - if you have turkey instead of chicken, that works just as well.

Then dump a can of chicken broth and a cup of water into a sauce pan, add the chunks, bring it to a boil first, then turn it down to simmer while you cook the noodles. If you have a lot of chicken, you might need 2 cans of broth.

Cook the noodles as usual - boiling them until they're at the stage of tender that you like best. I use salted water - you may not.

Once the noodles are cooked, drain them and put them in a casserole dish. Then, using a slotted spoon, remove the meat chunks from the chicken broth and add them to the noodles.

Your broth will have cooked down, so add water until you have about a cup and a half of liquid. Next, put about 2 tablespoons of corn starch in a cup, and add about an ounce or two of cold water. Stir it until it's smooth.

Add the cornstarch a little at a time to the broth, stirring constantly to keep it mixed well. Keep adding until your "sauce" has thickened almost to the consistency of gravy. Then take it off the stove and pour it over the noodles and meat.

To add variety, you can toss in some leftover vegetables, or a handful of frozen vegetables. I particularly like peas with noodles - you may prefer carrots, broccoli, or even green beans.

If you decide to use frozen vegetables, heat them in the sauce for a few minutes before you combine the ingredients.
If it isn't quite time for dinner, put a lid on your casserole and put the whole thing in the oven, turned on the lowest setting.

Since I love pasta in any form and ignore everything else on the table when it's there, this is enough for me. But if your family likes a "full meal" a good green salad makes a fine accompaniment.

Wheat-free Corn Pasta Recipe

First - sorry for my absence. This has been a really busy month around our house. There's always plenty for me to do - because I do write copy for a living and have all the usual stuff with taking care of a house and critters - but this month has been different.

It all started when our neighbor got the flu. He and his wife are in their 80's and they have cattle - and he was too sick to tend to them. Just feeding them doesn't take long, but those cows are having babies now, so Mrs. neighbor has needed a little help.

We've still got plenty of snow and ice, so it's really too cold yet for newborns. That means we've had a bit of fun with getting weak ones into the house to get them warm, and trying to feed them imitation milk that they really don't want until they're strong enough to go back outside - and then moving them back outside. Some of those babies are way heavy! And in between, we had to get our neighbor to the doctor and then - on Saturday night - go after him when the hospital suddenly decided he could go home.

Before you think I'm whining - it's been kind of fun. I hadn't been around calves for many years, and they are awfully sweet. And it sure feels good when you see one getting strong when you weren't sure it was going to live.

Meanwhile, we have found time to eat dinner most nights, and this week we tried the corn rotini.

Maybe it's been around in "big" stores for a long time, but our little store just got corn pasta a few weeks ago. I was tickled to see it, because I'm always trying to find something different that I think my husband will eat (can't get too creative here.)

I had an idea that corn pasta would taste different - more like cornbread or a corn tortilla. So I made a kind of "spaghetti sauce" except with taco seasoning. I added some crumbled and browned ground beef, just like I do when I make spaghetti the lazy way.

We all agreed that it tasted good - but not very much different than regular wheat pasta. The biggest difference was probably the texture - the corn pasta is firmer. That was OK with me, but my husband thought we should have cooked it longer.

I was in a big hurry that night - the cows, you know - so I didn't go all out with extras or trimmings. Next time I think I'll shred some lettuce, chop some tomatoes and onions, and grate some cheese to pile on top of it. Maybe I'll also add a spoonful of sour cream on top.

If you've used corn pasta and have a good recipe - please do share!

Actually, if you have any kind of recipe to share, you're not just welcome to do so, you're invited!