Mlinci
When cooking is merely an oral tradition, the story can be lost in a generation or two. It’s saddening for what was meaningless to one link in the chain would have been a treasure to the next. It was just assumed the traditions of meals would be passed on as they always had been, little knowing what they were going to be up against when the factories took over food production. We must not take our written recipes for granted, they may be so, so important one day!
While a stray recipe here and there has survived in my family, they are mostly of cookies, and those are so overlapped from both the Croatian & Slovak sides as to have blended. I do have my great-Grandma’s haluska recipes and it is a continual joy to serve them knowing they’ve survived the Atlantic Ocean and are being served to a fifth-generation in America. I’ve determined to discover other meals my ancestors might have eaten and introduce them into my children’s impressionable childhood food memories.
Adding Mlinci to the family cookbook is the fruit of that desire.
It was such a peculiar recipe I had to try it and see how it worked out! Essentially, Mlinci is a dish of roast chicken served over baked noodles similar to a thin flatbread and bathed in the chicken’s juices. I didn’t see how the flavor could be at all repugnant, but to boil baked noodles? Seemed like something that couldn’t possibly turn into anything other than a slimy mess.
Well, I am thrilled to say just how wrong I was and they have a wonderful noodle-like texture that works perfectly to soak up the succulent chicken juices.
I woke this morning to find my husband in the refrigerator eating cold leftovers for breakfast. When our children woke up and found out they panicked over whether there would be enough leftovers for them for lunch after he was in them.
The baked noodles for this recipe are prepared by making a dough and rolling it until it is quite thin. I find the dough relatively easy to work with but a pasta roller does make it even easier. The sheets are then baked for 8 minutes, flipping halfway, then broken into pieces. When it is time to cook the noodles, you would simply boil them in salted water like any other noodle.
The noodles can be made in advance and while the roast chicken may take a while to cook, the prep work is done within minutes or so and, with the modern conveniences of a mixer to knead the dough & a pasta roller to roll it out, it’s a fairly quick meal to make.
I prepared the roast chicken just as I would with any other roast chicken I make, with the exception being I don’t typically use garlic or white wine. Every other ingredient, as well as the process, is the same. (And makes the absolute best crispy chicken skin I might add.)
Before serving, the noodles MUST be soaked in the chicken & white wine juices for a couple of minutes. It’s painful to wait, I know. Snack on the chicken skin while you do, but it will be worth it, I promise.
Mlinci :: Roasted Chicken over Baked Noodles Recipe
You’re welcome to save this recipe image to your device for printing! Enjoy!
With heartfelt gratitude & hope that may the Lord abundantly bless you,
Quinn