So Julie is sick and needed some chicken noodle soup. So instead of buying her some canned crap, I made a big batch of the homemade stuff! Once again, I made a big batch of this stuff, just so I could send some home with everyone and freeze some for later use this fall/winter. I think I'll leave the recipe big, so you can do the same. The only problem we ran into, was we did not have a pot big enough, so we had to do it in two pots. if you have a big stock pot, then use it, if not, just do two big sauce pans (the biggest two you got!) Just remember, if you are using the two sauce pans, cut the recipe in half and do half in each pan!

Chicken Noodle Soup

2 Rotisserie Chickens
2 48 oz Swanson's Chicken Broth (or the equivalent of 94 oz)
1 bag of homestyle noodles, thin ones (I don't remember the size of the bag, but they were in a bag and say homestyle noodles, one size bag, two different sized noodles)
1 Red Onion, chopped
1 pack of the fresh chives in the herb section of the grocery store (these are the smaller, thinner ones with no bulbs, cut about 4 inches in length, in a plastic container)
2 tsp dried chopped tarragon leaves
3 cups water
Salt
Pepper
Garlic

Dumplings
2 Cups All purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp soft butter
3/4 cup milk
1 Tbsp tarragon leaves

In a pan bring some salt & water to boil to cook the noodles. While the water is heating up and the noodles are cooking, you'll need to de-bone the chicken. If you have never done this, just basically throw away skin, fat, and bones, keep the meat. This takes some time.

In your big (or two smaller) sauce pan, add your broth and water. Turn onto Medium heat. Saute your chopped onion for a few minutes just to help cook it and make it clearer. Dice up some of the chives as well. Add the onion, the chives, and the tarragon to the broth and water.

Add the chicken and the noodles once they are done. Season to taste with Salt, Pepper, and Garlic. I think I put about 2-3 Tablespoons of each into the soup.

While your soup is heating up, mix together all the ingredients for the dumplings. If seems to dry, add 1 Tbsp of milk at a time until moist enough. Try not to over mix.

Now for the tricky part. Turn your burners down to med-low. Scoop the desired size of dumpling batter into the soup. Once all batter is in, cover and don't touch for 15 minutes. Don't take the lid off, don't stir, don't move it. The steam the builds up is what you want to cook the dumplings and if you take the lid off, they don't cook all the way through and will be very dense.

After 15 minutes, your soup should be thoroughly heated. Serve with oyster crackers and grilled cheese. Enjoy!