Bring on the noodles

An egg noodle dish might not sound like traditional Thanksgiving fare — but for Taylor Hayes and his siblings, Tom Hayes and Helen Anderson, few recipes conjure up holiday memories like this one does. 

Mami’s Holiday Noodles is named for their paternal grandmother, Aileen Taylor Hayes, who passed it down to her son, Buddy Hayes. Every year at Thanksgiving, and sometimes at Christmas, the Hayes kids anticipated Buddy’s ritual of making homemade chicken stock and rendering fat for this favorite dish. 

Buddy, who died in 2022, began teaching his children the nuances of this recipe when they were young. 

“The foundation and the underlying secret is the homemade chicken stock used to cook the noodles and the sauce along with the rendered chicken fat used to sauté the vegetables and coat the noodles,” Taylor told Hoptown Chronicle. “Store-bought stock or broth, or the use of oils for cooking, does not create the same dish. A big roasting hen with plenty of fat is the key.”

Taylor, who is the Christian County Chamber of Commerce president, said his father “kept the tradition alive during his lifetime, passing it on to his children, his grandkids and hopefully his one great-grandson. While there have been a few adaptations made through the years, the use of homemade chicken stock and chicken fat has not. It is simply not a Thanksgiving meal without Mami’s noodles …”

Mami’s Holiday Noodles

INGREDIENTS

• 2 8-ounce packages of wide egg noodles
• 1 each red, yellow, orange, and green bell pepper
• 2 large yellow onions
• 1 bunch green onions
• 4 stalks celery with leaves
• 4  12-ounce cans Delmonte Tomato Wedges
• 3 tablespoons Italian flat leaf parsley
• 2 teaspoons dried sweet basil
• 2 teaspoons dried thyme
• 2 teaspoons bay leaf seasoning
• 4 garlic cloves
• Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
• Arrowroot
• 6 to 8 tablespoons rendered chicken fat
• Homemade chicken stock (recipe below)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Coarsely chop peppers and yellow onions into 1/2 to 3/4 inch pieces. Thinly slice on the diagonal the green onions and celery stalks. Finely chop the celery leaves and parsley. Mince the garlic. Drain and chop tomatoes, reserving the liquids.
2. In a large skillet or heavy saucepan, melt 4 to 5 tablespoons chicken fat over medium heat. Sauté peppers, onions, and celery until onions are just opaque keeping them crisp.
3. Add tomatoes, parsley, celery leaves, garlic and herbs.
4. To create the sauce, mix a tablespoon of arrowroot with 1 1/2 cups of the reserved tomato juice topped off with chicken stock.
5. Add slurry to the vegetable mixture stirring over medium heat until sauce thickens.
6. Repeat the process of mixing a small slurry of arrow root and chicken stock until reaching the desired consistency and thickness.
7. Salt and pepper to taste, adjust seasonings and remove from heat.

Noodles: Cook the two packages of noodles separately according to directions using chicken stock, a tablespoon of chicken fat and teaspoon of salt. After draining the noodles, in a large bowl toss noodles with a little more chicken fat and vegetable mixture.

Homemade Chicken Stock

INGREDIENTS

• 4- to 5-pound roasting hen
• 5 stalks celery with leaves
• 2 large yellow onions
• 1 bunch green onions
• 5 carrots
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
• 1/2 cup coarse chopped flat leaf parsley

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Remove gizzard and liver bag from hen and reserve for another use. Place hen and neck in an 8-quart stock pot with water to cover.
2. Coarsely chop vegetables (do not peel) and add to stockpot with bay leaves, peppercorns, and parsley. Fill stockpot to within 2′ of top. Bring to a boil over medium heat taking care not to scorch.
3. Reduce heat and simmer for 4 hours.
4. Allow to cool enough to handle then strain into container mashing solids to squeeze out the juices. Refrigerate until the fat congeals on the surface. Reserve chicken for another use.
5. Carefully remove the fat and reserve to sauté vegetables and cooking noodles. The stock and rendered fat can be made ahead then refrigerated or frozen until ready for use. Any leftover stock and chicken fat can be frozen and used to make soup.

Hoptown Chronicle

Hoptown Chronicle is an independent, nonprofit news outlet that is dedicated to providing fair, fact-based reporting for people who care about Hopkinsville, Kentucky. We believe that public service journalism serves the community's social, cultural and economic wellbeing by fostering knowledge, connection and meaning.