Chicken barley stew

It is so windy, cold and rainy today – a perfect day for soup.  With the threat of snow in the forecast I knew it was time for some warm comfort food.

Tonight Abby and I tried this chicken-barley stew recipe from the book Family Feasts for $75 a Week.  It was a real cheap meal for me for many reasons: 1) I had most of the ingredients in my house and the ingredients I did have to buy (carrots and cabbage) were very cheap,   2) I doubled the original recipe to make sure the vegetables didn’t go bad before I could use them preventing waste, and 3) by doubling the recipe I made sure that we have lunches for the next two days until my weekly planned shopping trip.

Barley in soup continues to absorb liquid, if this happens you can always add more chicken broth when you reheat to thin it out again.  The recipe below is for a double batch of soup with some seasoning modifications I did because the flavor was bland to me when I followed the recipe exactly.  I don’t measure seasonings so I listed the suggested amounts from her recipe.  I used probably 1.5-2x as much seasoning and I added pepper and some salt.  I don’t usually add salt to food but this soup needed it to me.   I also didn’t have any fresh parsley, I bet that would have added some nice flavor.  I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.  The chicken was Abby’s favorite part because it came out so moist. 

 

Chicken Barley Stew

16 cups of chicken broth (4 quarts)

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 1#)

2 cup pearl barley

4-5 ribs of celery chopped

6 carrots chopped

2 cups finely slivered green cabbage (I used about 1/3 of a head)

1 large onion

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 teaspoon dried basil

2 teaspoon dried sage

1 teaspoon dried thyme

salt and pepper to taste

2 teaspoons minced fresh parsley

1)Bring broth to a boil in a large soup pot.

2) When broth is boiling, add all ingredients to the pot.  Return to a boil, then partially cover pot and reduce heat to medium-love.  Let stew simmer 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

3) Ladle into bowls.  Garnish with parsley before serving.