Home Cooking with the Chefs of Commerce Café

Join us once a month, as we share the recipes our chefs love to make at home for their families with your families. Each recipe will have ingredients sourced in Lockhart and will be easy to make with limited equipment in your own home.

This Months Chef: Sarah Heard

Lockhart graduate: Mom of a spunky 12-year-old, carb lover, Austin Chef of the Year by Culture Map 2021.

It’s the time of year when the weather gets nice, but you can’t enjoy it because you, inevitably, got sick. In my case, it’s usually the cedar pollen. I have always felt that it’s important to eat a certain way when you get sick. Chicken fat, ginger, garlic, rosemary, and turmeric are my go-to items before I bother the doctor.

This recipe has everything and more to make you feel at least cozy while you’re feeling off. My family is from up north, and I grew up eating these comforting dumpling style kluski. If you don’t feel up to making the noodles, any egg noodle from the store will do.

Soup:

4 chicken thighs, bone in, skin on

5ea carrots, diced

4ea celery stalks, diced

1 white onion, diced

1 inch nub of ginger, peeled & grated

6 cloves garlic, sliced thin

32 oz chicken stock

1 bay leaf

1 sprig rosemary

1 chicken bouillion cube

1 TBS ground black pepper

1 tsp turmeric

1 TBS salt

Noodles:

1.5 cups flour

2 egg yolks

1 egg

1 TBS cooking oil

½ tsp salt

* Put a wide bottomed pot on a burner on medium heat, add a light amount of cooking oil.

* Place chicken thighs, skin side down, and let the fat from the skin render into the pot

* Gently move the chicken thighs occasionally, making sure that they are not burning

* Once they have begun to brown, move them to the side and add your garlic, onion, & ginger

* Cook the aromatics until they become fragrant and translucent

* Add the carrots & celery and continue to cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally

* Add the bay leaf, bouillon, salt, pepper, turmeric, & rosemary to the pot and pour the chicken stock into the pot

* Add 1 quart of water to the pot and gently spread the chicken back out into the bottom of the pot

* Simmer for 30 minutes

* Make the noodle dough in this time

— Add the flour & salt to a bowl and make a well

— Mix the egg and oil together

— Add the eggs to the well of the flour and slowly mix the flour into a ball

— Knead by hand until elastic

 — Wrap the ball in plastic & set aside at room temp

* After 30 minutes of simmering, move the chicken from the pot to a large bowl using tongs

* Remove the bones and skin from the chicken and discard, or chop the skin and add back to the meat

* Using two forks, break the chicken up into smaller pieces and set the bowl aside

* Bring the broth up to a gentle boil and roll the dough out into a layer that is about the thickness of a tortilla

* Using a knife, cut your noodles any shape you would like. If you want noodle style dumplings, cut big squares or if you want kluski, cut wide 2 inch noodles

* Add the noodles to the pot of broth and cook for approximately 8 minutes.

* Once the noodles are cooked, add your chicken back to the pot

I also like to throw some mustard greens into the pot right before I serve it.