Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

1 whole chicken or split fryer
2 reg or 1 lg can cream of chicken soup
Long thick country pasta from Wal-mart/Sams or extra wide egg noodles
Optional recipe below for dumplings if you prefer instead of noodles
Large package frozen mixed vegetables
6 stocks celery chopped if you have it on hand
Water to cover chicken in stock pot
Salt to season water
1 T Italian Seasoning


Place chicken in stock pot and add water to cover; cook 30-45 minutes or until chicken fully cooked
Take out of water and set aside to cool

To water in stock pot, whisk in cream of chicken soup; when mixture starts to boil again, add noodles and let boil 10 minutes then add mixed vegetables.

While above is cooking, remove skin and de-bone chicken, tearing into bite size pieces. Add chicken to soup.

Season with salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning.

Makes 6-8 large servings

Dumplings:
2 c flour
4 t. baking powder
1 t. salt
3 T. butter
1 c. + 3 T. milk

In medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder and salt.
In small saucepan over low heat, bring the butter and milk to a simmer. Add the butter and milk mixture to the dry ingredients, stirring with a fork until the mixture just comes together.
Drop batter by small spoonfuls onto a baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap.
Refrigerate until ready to use
When all ingredients have been added to pot and it's still boiling, add dumplings one at a time, not on top of each other. Cover pan and simmer about 15 minutes until the dumplings are cooked through. Do not stir the pot or the dumplings will fall apart!