• 1) Melt butter in large pot and add onion, carrots, and celery. Cook and stir for about 5 minutes until softened. Add garlic and cook for about 30 seconds longer until fragrant.
• 2) Move the vegetables to one side of the pot and add the olive oil on the opposite side. Allow oil to heat for a minute over medium heat. Sear the chicken until browned on both sides. About 3 minutes per side.
• Add 8 cups of the broth. thyme, and leaves. Bring to a simmer and reduce the heat to medium low. Simmer for about 30 minutes, until chicken is cooked through.
• Remove bay leaves and thyme sprig. Shake thyme to allow loose leaves to fall into the soup. Remove the chicken from the pot and shred.
• While shredding the chicken cook the noodles in a separate pot and drain. Add the chicken back to the soup, turn up the heat to bring the soup to a boil, and prepare the dumplings. Add more broth to the soup if needed.

Dumplings

• Combine the dumpling ingredients in a medium bowl and stir in flour until a thick dough forms. This will take between 1 1/2 and 2 cups of flour.
• Drop by spoonful into boiling soup. Dumplings will float to the top when done. To serve scoop desire amount of noodles into a bowl and ladle soup over the noodles. Enjoy!