As a kid, my parents used to take me on day trips to places within a couple hours drive of the Washington, D.C. area. We frequently visited locales like Harpers Ferry, W.Va., famous for John Brown's armory raid, and Berkeley Springs, Va., where I hunted for pet crayfish in George Washington's outdoor bathtub. But for all my fond memories of these destinations, I remember most looking forward to visiting Amish country in Lancaster, Pa. for its Pennsylvania Dutch cooking.
The foods prepared by the Pennsylvania Dutch, who colonized the southeastern part of the state in the 1700s, are characterized by their simplicity. The recipes rely on pantry staples -- meats and dairy products -- all of which were produced on local farms. Farmers' wives capitalize on the seasonality of the farms by featuring homegrown fruits and vegetables -- such as green beans, beets and cabbage -- in the meals and various pickled condiments. I'd describe Pennsylvania Dutch cooking as somewhat akin to the so-called comfort food of the South in its heartiness and penchant for accompanying side dishes -- in fact, the German ancestry of the settlers is readily seen in the wholesome fare. Yet with the farming influence, their cooking incorporates more than just meat and potatoes, which adds a lightness to these dishes rooted in German culinary tradition, long known to overwhelm appetites and fill stomachs to the brim.
One of these dishes is bott boi, the closest translation of which from the Deitsch language spoken by the Pennsylvania Dutch to English is actually "pot pie." But it isn't your standard pot pie with a heavy lard crust. Instead, this "pot pie" lacks a crust, which is replaced by square egg noodles set amid a substantial chicken broth. Without fail, I would always order bott boi as my meal at the Amish Barn, our restaurant pit stop in Lancaster. After not having visited for several years, you can imagine my excitement to return last spring to order my tried and true dish. Sadly, someone didn't do her research and ended up driving there on a Sunday -- when Amish restaurants are closed. But this foiled plan spurred another one in its stead: I scoured the Internet for a recipe.
The first one I stumbled upon was a bare bones version that basically entailed putting a whole chicken in a pot and simmering it with some vegetables, then adding the bott boi noodles to finish. I kid you not, this was the Web site's "recipe," with no measurements to be found. So armed with these minimal instructions, I devised a recipe of my own, with a few caveats. First, in trying to speed up the cooking time, I used chicken thighs rather than a whole chicken. The bones and fat of the thighs create a rich stock in no time flat. The whole recipe shouldn't take more than 45 minutes, start to finish. Second, real bott boi noodles are a homemade mixture of eggs, flour, butter and water. I have seen these noodles for sale at some of the Lancaster markets, but I substituted plain egg noodles as an easy and readily available alternative. So without further ado ...
Chicken Bott Boi
4 chicken thighs, bones in and skin on
5 cups water
1 yellow onion
1 carrot
2 white potatoes, unpeeled
Plenty of salt and pepper
2 bay leaves
Half a 12-ounce bag of egg noodles
1. Place a large soup pot on the stove over medium heat. Add the chicken thighs and water (enough to cover thighs). In the meantime, chop up the onion, carrot and potatoes into bite-sized pieces. Add to pot, along with salt, pepper and bay leaves. Let boil.
2. Once the thighs are cooked through, after about 20 minutes, remove them from the pot. Once they are cool enough to handle, take off the skins and pick off the meat. Only put the meat back into the pot -- throw away the skins!
3. Add the egg noodles. Once these finish cooking (about five minutes), it's done! Remove the bay leaves before serving.
The success of this dish the first time around led me to believe that the instructions on the first Web site were deliberately sparse -- this bott boi was so incredibly simple to make, it's foolproof. I've since seen several variations, involving saffron and tomatoes or sodium-laden chicken bouillon cubes, but this recipe comes pretty close to the real deal served by the Amish Barn. With no frills and only one pot to dirty, what else can you ask for when preparing a hearty (and did I mention inexpensive? and fast?) fall meal?
Nora's column runs biweekly Wednesdays. She can be reached at nwhite@cavalierdaily.com.
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