Hearty Midwestern Chicken and Noodles

Still waiting on the refund from my broken camera.  I'll have a picture of this sooner or later...

3 chicken drumstick-thigh pieces (about 2 pounds)
4 cups water
1/2 cup chopped celery leaves
2 tbsp snipped parsley
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dried thyme, crushed
1/4 tsp pepper
1 bay leaf
4 medium carrots, sliced (2 cups)
3 medium onions, chopped (1 1/2 cups)
2 stalks celery, sliced (1 cup)
3 cups packaged dried wide noodles
2 cups milk
2 tbsp all-purpose flour

1. Skin chicken. Rinse chicken; pat dry with paper towels.  Place chicken, water, celery leaves, parsley, salt, thyme, pepper, and bay leaf in a large Dutch oven.  Bring to boiling; reduce heat.  Simmer, covered, for 30 minutes.
2. Add the carrots, onions, and sliced celery.  Simmer, covered, about 30 minutes more or until chicken is tender and no longer pink.  Remove from heat.  Remove chicken; cool slightly.  Discard teh bay leaf. Remove chicken from bones; discard bones.  Chop chicken and set aside.
3. Heat vegetable mixture to boiling.  Add noodles; cook for 5 minutes.  Stir in 1 1/2 cups of the milk and the peas.
4. Combine the remaining milk and flour in a screw-top jar.  Cover and shake until smooth.  Stir into noodle mixture.  Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly.  Stir in chicken.  Cook for 1 to 2 minutes more or until heated through. 

Recipe from Better Homes and Gardens One-Dish Meals.

THINGS I CHANGED:

• I didn't have parsely or thyme, so I substituted Italian seasoning.
• Directions!  You are my nemesis!  I didn't skin the chicken before cooking it, so I did that after the chicken was cooked.  Once again, I am foiled by the very first step.
• I rinsed the chicken, but I didn't dry it with paper towels.  To me, this seemed like a waste of paper towels because I was just going to put the chick into more water. 
• Medium onions must be very small wherever this recipe was written.  I used one onion and had more than 1 1/2 cups of chopped onions.
• Instead of big carrots, I used baby carrots.  I used the 2-cup measurement as my guide.
• The noodles I used were called dumplings.  They were perfect.   We all loved the big noodles.
• No bay leaf.  I rarely use bay leaves, and they're kind of pricey, so I skipped it entirely.

THINGS I LEARNED:

• When a recipe has a ton of ingredients and relatively consuming instructions, allot more time than you think you will need.  For example, if you think you will need about an hour (like I did for this recipe, totally ignoring the fact that the cooking time alone is more than one hour), allot at least an hour and a half.  We were a little late to rehearsal because the food wasn't done on time.  Oops.
• Always read through the ingredient list.  Just because it's long doesn't mean it's not doable.  I have virtually all of these items on hand all the time. 
• Enlist the help of your family if time is running short.  Bill chopped the chicken for me, and Emma shook the jar of flour and milk.  Very helpful, indeed.

OVERALL OPINIONS:

Bill: Loved it.  Had seconds.

Emma: Loved it.  Would have had seconds if we had not had to run out the door to get to play practice.

Georgia: Tried one bite, burned herself, and refused to eat any more.  She likes chicken and noodles, generally, so I'm hoping to get her to eat some leftovers.

Me:  I liked it a lot.  It will be perfect this winter on cold, dreary afternoons when I want to be in the kitchen over cooking food!  :)