Chicken Awesome!

I have decided to call this Chicken Awesome. Because well it is. My best friend's mom first made this dish for me (well technically not for me, she made it for Becca and Becca brought it back to college and was generous enough to let me taste it). They call it Chicken Helushki. Typing that into google gets you some sort of cabbage dish. And plus I've written this recipe so you can make it in a slow cooker because the original required about 2 hours of stove top time. So now the only really complicated part of this recipe is the noodles. And they aren't so much complicated as they are time consuming. But so worth it. Soooooo worth it.

Chicken Awesome!

1 medium onion, chopped fine
2 cloves of garlic, chopped fine
3 tbsp paprika
3 tbsp Worchestershire sauce
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 whole chicken. I use the one on the bone, but cut up into pieces. I leave out the spine section and take most of the skin off. You could also use 2 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breasts if you don't want to debone them. But the bones add flavor in the cooking and it is very easy to remove them.
Water
1 15-oz can of tomato sauce
1 15-oz can of whole tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cup sour cream (optional)
Noodles (see recipe below or use egg noodles)

• Mix the first six ingredients together in the slow cooker. Add the chicken. Add water until all but the top inch of the chicken is covered (about 2-3 cups). You want to add just enough water to cook the chicken. Adding too much water here will mean a longer cooking time at the end to thicken the sauce. You can always add more liquid if it evaporates while you are cooking.


• Cook the chicken for at least 6 hours on high; or until the chicken falls off the bone (or if using boneless chicken, until the chicken shreds easily with a fork).


• Remove the chicken from the slowcooker and place into a dish or onto a surface where you can debone and shred the chicken. Obviously be careful, it is hot. Carefully remove all of the bones and hard bits of cartilage and icky bits from the chicken and discard them. Then shred the chicken gently using a fork. Your chicken should just fall apart and be in bit size pieces.


• Add the tomato sauce and tomatoes to the liquid in the slow cooker and stir to mix. Add the shredded chicken and any accumulated juices back into the slow cooker. Cook on high for about 2 more hours, or until the sauce has thickened to a thin pasta sauce consistency. You can stir in the sour cream before serving to make it a bit creamier. Serve over noodles. Unbutton your pants and get comfy because you aren't moving for a while.

Homemade Noodles
2 1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
large pot full of boiling salted water
Butter

• Mix all ingredients together in a bowl.
• You have two options for noodle making. 1. You can pour the noodle mixture a bit at a time onto the back of a baking pan. Scrape off 1-2 tsp into the boiling water with the back of a butter knife. 2. You can add the noodle mixture until a zip top bag and cut off a corner. Squeeze 1-2 tsp out into the boiling water at a time.
• Stir the water. Remove the noodles when they begin to float.
• Remove the noodles into a bowl with 2-3 tbsp of butter. Toss to coat to keep the noodles from sticking together.
• Repeat those last three steps until all of your mixture has been used up. Try to refrain from eating the ones covered in butter so you actually have some to eat with dinner.