I can not emphasize how much I enjoyed this meal.  Noodles, potatoes and a biscuit, so many carbs, so frickin awesome.

Chicken-N-Noodles over Mashed Potatoes

• Chicken Noodle Soup – Recipe Follows
  
• Mashed Potatoes – Any will do.  Try Garlic Parmesan or Whipped Red Skin Potatoes
• Buttermilk Biscuits

Chicken Noodle Soup – (Adapted from Tyler Florence)

• 8 cups chicken stock
  • Tip if you use store bought chicken stock, add 1 tsp chicken base to it to make it extra rich.  Chicken base is available at the grocery store near the chicken bouillon.  It is similar, except it contains less salt and has a more intense flavor.  A little goes a long ways.
• 2 cups cooked shredded chicken – (a good shortcut is a roasted chicken from the store)
  
• 1 batch dumpling noodles (roughly 10 oz of store bought egg noodles)
• 1 medium onion
• 3 garlic cloves
• 2 carrots (cut into 1/4 inch rounds)
  
• 2 ribs celery (sliced lengthwise and cut into 1/4 inch slices)
  
• 2 tbs extra-virgin olive oil
• 4 sprigs of thyme or 2 tsp dried thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Making the Soup

Place a large pot over medium heat and add the olive oil.  Add the onion, garlic, carrots, celery, thyme and bay leaf and cook till the veggies soften, but are not browned.  Roughly 6 minutes.

Once the veggies are softened add the chicken stock and bring to a boil.  When boiling add the noodles and cook for about 5 minutes.

Fold in the chicken and cook for another 3-5 minutes to heat up the chicken.  Season with salt and pepper and you are ready to eat soup.

Assembling the Chicken-N-Noodle bowls

In the center of a large bowl place a single biscuit.

Next add a nice helping of Mashed Potatoes.

Using a ladle, pick up as many noodles and veggies as you can from the chicken noodle soup.  Drain most of the liquid out and then place the noodles on top of the potatoes.

Garnish with a little parsley and you have created the greatest dish your family has ever eaten.

It is so simple, but down right amazing.  You have to try this dish.  It takes home cooking to a new level.

I shaved some slices of Parmesan onto the potatoes for this shot.  It is unnecessary, but added yet another punch of cheese flavor to the dish.

Garlic Parmesan Mashed Potatoes

• 2 pounds russet potatoes
• 1 tbs kosher salt
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 2 tbs butter
• 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped or grated
  
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan
• salt and pepper for seasoning

Peel and dice the potatoes into uniform sized chunks.  Try to get the potatoes to even sizes so that they all cook in the same amount of time. Place the potatoes into a large sauce pan.  Add the salt and cover the potatoes with water.  Bring to a boil and cook until the potatoes fall apart.  This time depends on the size of the potato chunks and your altitude so I am not about to estimate how long it will take.  You will know that the potatoes are done, when you can touch them with a fork and they fall apart.

In a small/medium saucepan add the cream, butter and garlic.  I like to finely grate the garlic into the pan.  I find that the garlic is more evenly distributed throughout the potatoes when when you grate it.  If you don’t have a grater, use a garlic press or finely dice the garlic.  Place the pan over medium low heat until the potatoes are ready.

When the potatoes fall apart, remove them from the heat and drain the water.  Mash the potatoes a bit with a masher and then add the cream.  Continue to mash until you get the consistency that you like for your potatoes.

Next add the Parmesan cheese and mix it into the potatoes.

Taste the potatoes and adjust the seasonings, they may not need anything as the Parmesan cheese tends to be a little salty. In theory every part of the meal should be seasoned to perfection.  But when you simmer gravy, the water evaporates and the flavor intensifies.  So I like to always warn people to remember that the potatoes will be served with a pat of salted butter or covered in gravy that is usually seasoned pretty heavily.  I tend to leave the potatoes needing a little salt but then again this all depends on how they are served.  You do not want everything to come together and taste like a salt lick.

Serve the potatoes with gravy or butter and enjoy!!

They were creamy and delicious.  They had just enough goat cheese to taste the cheese without overpowering the potatoes.  Amazing!!!

Goat Cheese Mashed Potatoes

• 3 lbs Mashed Potatoes (peeled and quartered)
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 4 oz goat cheese

Peel and quarter the potatoes.  Place them in a large pan and cover them with water.  Bring to a boil and continue to boil until tender.  Roughly 20-25 minutes.

When the potatoes are done drain and add butter heavy cream and the goat cheese.  Season with salt and pepper.

Mash with a potato masher.

You can use a mixer to get them extra creamy, but I find the lumps to be really nice.  It shows that the potatoes are real potatoes.  Not re-hydrated potato flakes.  Nothing wrong with re-hydrated potato flakes.  They make a nice crust for a fish fry (but that is another post), but for mashed potatoes I prefer the real thing.

The goat cheese added a great flavor to the potatoes. You have to try this out.

Whipped Red Skin Potatoes

Simple and super tasty.

Whipped Red Skin Potatoes

• 2 1/2 Pounds of Red Skin Potatoes (New Potatoes)
• 6 oz (3/4 cup) heavy cream
• 3 tbs butter
• salt and pepper

Wash the potatoes.  Since we are going to keep the skins on, make sure to clean all of the dirt off the potatoes.  Next remove any bad spots from the potatoes.  Then quarter the potatoes.

Quartered

Place the potatoes in a large pan and cover them with water.  Bring to a boil and cook until tender.  25-30 minutes.

Make sure to fully cover the potatoes. Some of the water will evaporate, so cover with at least an inch of water.

Drain the potatoes and place them back into the pan.  Add the butter and cream.  Using a hand-held masher, start to mash the potatoes.  When they are broken up add some salt and pepper and then using a electric mixer whip the potatoes until light and fluffy.  If you don’t have a electric mixer, whip the potatoes with the masher.  Sounds weird, but it works.  Mash the potatoes, then stir the potatoes 10-15 times rapidly with the masher.  Then mash the potatoes again and repeat until the potatoes are light and fluffy.

I whipped the potatoes with the hand masher. They came out fantastic.

Now comes the taste test.  Taste the potatoes.  Add a bit of salt, stir and taste again.  By incrementally adding the salt, you will determine the right amount to add.  It varies for each batch, due to the size of the potatoes.  This sounds scary, but keep on adding a little salt.  Trust me, your taste buds will know when it is perfect.  There will be a wow moment when the salt is perfect and the potatoes will come alive and you will hear music.  Maybe not music, but you will definitely have a wow moment.  Be careful though, a 1/4 tsp past the “wow moment”, will be a “oh crap moment”.  Too much salt takes away from the potatoes and leaves you with a salt lick, not good eats.  Don’t worry you will find your wow moment.  Just take your time and incrementally add salt.  I used about 1 1/2 tsp of salt.  But it will vary, so don’t immediately add that amount.

If you are a little scared of ruining the whole batch of potatoes, take a small bowl of the potatoes and add some salt.  Keep on doing it until they taste amazing.  Once you have that flavor.  Add salt to the pan of potatoes until they taste like the small bowl.  A comparison can be very handy.  Plus, then you have a goal and won’t worry about the amount of salt you are adding.

Serve with butter, gravy or top with bacon and cheese.

Tip – Keep a small bowl of kosher salt near the stove.  That way you can add a pinch whenever you need it.  Shakers can be inaccurate and kosher salt is better to cook with.  I actually use a small ramekin that I purchased for souffles’.