Buttered Noodles are pasta noodles cooked al dente in broth and then tossed with melted butter, garlic, and parmesan cheese. Make your own homemade egg noodles to use in this dish!
Buttered Noodles
Buttered noodles are such an easy and flavorful dish to make when you need a side dish or a light meal. The noodles pair well with main dishes like meatloaf, Swedish Meatballs, or chicken or beef stroganoff. Add a vegetable like Brussels sprouts or asparagus to round out the meals. But, you don’t need a main dish to enjoy the noodles; they are simply delicious on their own!
Noodles Ingredients
Pasta: I used mafaldine pasta in this recipe. You could use whatever pasta you have on hand, or make your own shaped pasta noodles to use.
Chicken Bouillon: You will use chicken bouillon powder when boiling the noodles and in the garlic butter sauce. You could also crush bouillon cubes to use. Each cube, crushed, is about one teaspoon.
Butter Sauce: For the sauce, use a stick of salted butter, more bouillon powder, garlic, and parmesan cheese. Be sure to have a little extra parmesan cheese to add to the top of the plate of noodles when serving.
Parmesan Cheese: For best results when melted into the noodles, I like to use freshly grated parmesan cheese. However, you could use what you have on hand.
Preparing the Noodles
In buttered noodles, the pasta is boiled in broth. To get the noodles made, first, fill a pot halfway with water and add salt to the water. Bring the salted water to a boil. After the water is boiling, add the bouillon powder and noodles. Cook noodles until al dente, according to the package instructions.
Once the noodles have been cooked, reserve about a cup of pasta water. I will explain more about that later. Drain the rest of the water and set the noodles aside as you make the garlic butter sauce.
Why Use Pasta Water
Reserved pasta water is used in a lot of pasta dishes that have a sauce, including my Spaghetti Limone, Vodka Sauce recipe, and Copycat Carbone’s Spicy Pasta, just to name a few. Pasta water adds a salty flavor to the dish, as well as helps thicken the sauce and evenly coat each and every noodle. And, in a recipe like this, you want to enjoy the buttery flavor in every bite!
Can I Make Buttered Noodles without Parmesan Cheese?
Sure! If you don’t have any parmesan cheese on hand, or simply don’t want to add any, you can leave it out of the recipe. You will still get buttery, flavorful noodles!
More Pasta Dishes
Buttered Noodles
Ingredients
Noodles
- 16 ounces mafaldine noodles, or pasta noodles you have on hand
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon chicken bouillon powder
Garlic Butter Sauce
- ½ cup (1 stick, 113g) salted butter
- 2 teaspoons chicken bouillon powder
- 2 teaspoons garlic, minced
- ¼ cup (25g) parmesan cheese, plus more for garnish (optional)
- parsley for garnish
- salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
Noodles
- Fill a large pot halfway with water. Add salt and bring to a boil. Add bouillon powder and malfaldine noodles and cook until al dente (about 8 minutes).
- Reserve 1 cup of pasta water and drain the rest. Set noodles aside while you prepare the garlic butter sauce.
Sauce
- In the same pot you used to make the noodles, melt the butter and chicken bouillon powder. Stir to mix together. Add garlic and cook 1 more minute.
- Add ½ cup of reserved pasta water and stir to combine.
- Add noodles and parmesan to the pot and toss to combine. Add more pasta water, a little at a time, if needed, until the buttered noodles reach your desired consistency.
- Top with parsley and additional parmesan cheese. Serve warm.
Did you make this recipe?
You can tag me at @iamhomesteader.
This recipe was inspired by @britscooking on TikTok.
My mom used to make this. She’d also add extra butter, garlic, parsley & croutons that would soften in the butter
Where do I find these noodles?
Some grocery stores, specialty stores, or online.
So when do you cook the noodles in broth not the water .. I thought you said to get the flavor you needed the broth .. now you said to cook in salted water ..
#1 “Fill a large pot halfway with water. Add salt and bring to a boil. Add bouillon powder and malfaldine noodles and cook until al dente (about 8 minutes).”
Oh my gosh these Buttered Noodles are fantastic. We finally had to put them away after dinner because the kids kept eating them. I made them exactly as the recipe says and they are a wonderful blend of garlic, butter, and parmesan. You won’t regret making them as a side dish!
Loved this! My son is obsessed.
@iamhomesteader. This recipe was fabulous. Who knew noodles could taste so good. No more store bought mixes for me!
Amazing
Very easy to make and quite yummy! I used half water and half vegetable broth to make vegetarian.
I love your recipes…..thank you
Trying to be more judicious in cooking dinner sends me looking for the something different and delicious! My hubby likes most everything but I am pickier. This was quick, easy and delicious!
It truly only takes 20 minutes start to finish. While the noodles were cooking and the butter sauce melting I had time to fix a Caesar salad. I did have to make do when I didn’t have chicken broth (expired 9 months prior) and my bouillon cubes were rock hard. I thought I had Better than Bouillon chicken flavor but it was onion……so I used that in the butter sauce and my rock hard bouillon cubes in the water. Once I figured out how to wing it, it was a breeze and delicious is an understatement!! In the butter sauce I did use garlic pepper along with the onion better than bouillon! Hubby agrees it is 5 star! Time to stock up on fresh chicken………..bouillon! Next time going to add some fresh veggies!
This recipe has been around as long as I can remember. So Britt‘s cooking on TikTok should not be taking credit. The Internet has gotten ridiculous
I bet you’re fun at parties😂
Kind of a buzzkill, aren’t we, David?
As have you! 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Yummy
Forget the Parm and toss noodles with cottage cheese. My Dad did that and I love it that way still.
I will definitely try this recipe
I love noodles
I can only imagine the salty deliciousness of these.
Made these for supper. OMG I could have eaten the whole pan. Will be on my list to make many times.
Can you make early?