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These Slow Cooker Amish buttered noodles are plain in the best possible way. Wide egg noodles, chicken broth, butter, and seasoned salt cook into a tender, buttery side dish with hardly any effort. You’re going to love how easy they are with chicken, meatloaf, pork chops, or whenever dinner needs something warm and comforting.
Why You’ll Love It
- Four simple ingredients — egg noodles, chicken broth, butter, and seasoned salt are all you need.
- No boiling required — the dry noodles cook right in the Slow Cooker.
- Buttery, flavorful noodles — the noodles soak up chicken broth for a light sauce instead of plain water.
- Easy side dish for six — perfect with rotisserie chicken, sausage, pork chops, or meatloaf.
- Minimal cleanup — everything cooks in one slow cooker.
Ingredient Notes
Wide egg noodles are the right noodle here. I use a 12-ounce bag of dry wide egg noodles, the regular old grocery-store kind. Nothing fancy, nothing imported, no need to wander into an aisle with Italian music playing overhead and spend twelve dollars on something shaped like a tiny ear. Those noodles have their place. This isn’t it.
For the chicken broth, low-sodium is important because seasoned salt brings plenty of flavor on its own. I’ve made this with regular broth when that was all I had, and it was good—but a little saltier than I prefer.
Use unsalted butter so you can control the seasoning. One full stick may feel like a lot when you’re slicing it up, but it melts into the noodles and broth and makes that simple, silky sauce. This is buttered noodles. We’re not pretending it’s spa cuisine.
Seasoned salt is the little shortcut that makes these taste like more than butter and broth. I usually start with the full amount, but if you have very young kids or somebody sensitive to salt at your table, you can hold back a bit and add more after tasting. There are pepper shakers for a reason.
Ingredients
- 12 ounces dry wide egg noodles
- 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
- 1 1/2 teaspoons seasoned salt, or to taste
Instructions
Lightly coat the inside of your slow cooker with nonstick spray or rub it with a little butter. Do not skip this if your slow cooker tends to grab onto food like it has a personal grudge. Mine has behaved better since I replaced the old one, but that old crock had seen things.
Pour the 12 ounces of dry wide egg noodles into the bottom of the slow cooker and spread them into a fairly even layer. They don’t have to look perfect. We are making dinner, not arranging a display at the county fair.
Scatter the pieces of unsalted butter over the dry noodles, tucking a few pieces down among the noodles so the butter melts through instead of sitting in one lonely puddle on top.
Sprinkle the 1 1/2 teaspoons of seasoned salt evenly over the noodles and butter. If you know your family is cautious about salt, use a little less now; you can always add more later. You cannot un-salt a crock of noodles, and I speak from experience there.
Slowly pour in the 4 cups of low-sodium chicken broth, making sure the noodles all get moistened. Gently press the noodles down with a spoon if you need to so that most of them are submerged in the broth. A few stubborn noodles may poke up, and that’s fine—they’ll soften once the heat gets going.
Cover the slow cooker and cook on LOW for 2 to 3 hours, until the noodles are tender but not mushy. Around the 1 1/2- to 2-hour mark, gently stir from the bottom so the noodles cook evenly and absorb that buttery broth. Don’t stir them aggressively; egg noodles are tender little things, and they can go from lovely to broken-up in a hurry.
Once the noodles are tender and most of the broth has become a light, buttery sauce, taste one and adjust the seasoning with a little more seasoned salt if needed. If the noodles seem drier than you like, add an extra splash of warm chicken broth—about 1/4 to 1/2 cup—and stir gently.
Turn the slow cooker to WARM and give the noodles one final gentle stir right before serving, redistributing the butter and seasoning. Serve them straight from the crock if you want. I usually do, mostly because I dislike washing a serving bowl when nobody is handing out medals for it.
Variations
Stir in sour cream at the end—somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 cup—if you prefer them creamy. It makes the noodles richer and a little tangy, almost like a very mild noodle Casserole without the Casserole part. A splash of heavy cream works too, though it is not always on hand.
Frozen peas or mixed vegetables can be folded in during the last 20 to 30 minutes of cooking if you want some color and a little something extra. Peas are especially good here. Green peas, buttered noodles, chicken—very old-school dinner plate, and I mean that lovingly.
You can add 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder or onion powder along with the seasoned salt if you want a little more flavor. Black pepper at the end is nice too. For a heartier meal, stir in shredded rotisserie chicken, leftover roast beef, diced ham, or whatever cooked meat is hanging around, then let it warm through on LOW for about 10 minutes.
Shredded cheddar can turn the noodles heavy and a bit gluey, so I keep coming back to the plain buttery version.
Storage & Reheating
Leftovers keep in the refrigerator for about 3 days in a covered container. They do firm up once they’re cold because the butter and noodles settle in together, so don’t be alarmed when they look less creamy the next day.
For reheating, add a small splash of chicken broth before warming them in the microwave or in a covered skillet over low heat. Stir gently as they warm. A little broth brings them back to life better than water does, though water will work in a pinch.
If you’re keeping them warm for dinner, leave the slow cooker on WARM, not LOW. LOW will keep cooking the noodles, and then you can wind up with something closer to buttered noodle paste. Not the goal. Still edible, probably. But not the goal.
Final Notes
There is something deeply comforting about food that doesn’t try to impress anybody. These noodles aren’t dramatic. They don’t arrive sizzling or covered in a glaze with seventeen ingredients nobody can pronounce. They’re just warm, buttery noodles waiting in the slow cooker while the rest of dinner figures itself out.
Sometimes that’s enough. More than enough, really.
Slow Cooker Amish Buttered Noodles
Ingredients
- 12 ounces dry wide egg noodles
- 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter 1 stick, cut into pieces
- 1 1/2 teaspoons seasoned salt or to taste
Instructions
- Lightly coat the inside of the slow cooker with nonstick spray or rub it with a little butter.
- Pour the dry wide egg noodles into the bottom of the slow cooker and spread them into a fairly even layer.
- Scatter the pieces of unsalted butter over the dry noodles, tucking a few pieces down among the noodles.
- Sprinkle the seasoned salt evenly over the noodles and butter, using a little less if desired.
- Slowly pour in the chicken broth, making sure the noodles are moistened, and gently press them down with a spoon so most are submerged.
- Cover and cook on LOW for 2 to 3 hours, gently stirring from the bottom around the 1 1/2- to 2-hour mark so the noodles cook evenly and absorb the buttery broth.
- When the noodles are tender and most of the broth has become a light, buttery sauce, taste and add more seasoned salt if needed; add 1/4 to 1/2 cup warm chicken broth if the noodles seem too dry.
- Turn the slow cooker to WARM, give the noodles one final gentle stir, and serve straight from the crock.