Chicken Barley Soup

By Talk2usoon

Ingredients

• Chicken Barley Soup
• 8-10 8-10 servings
• Truly the magical elixir ~ the well known cure for the common cold.
• to Stock (recipe to follow)
• 2 2 2 Tbsp. butter
• l lg. onion, chopped
• 2 2 2 c. barley, rinsed
• 3 3 3 carrots, sliced
• 3 3 3 stalks celery, sliced
• 1 1 1 c. parsley, minced
• to & pepper, to taste
• chicken meat, chopped
• Parmesan cheese (optional)
• Chicken Stock
• to to to rich homemade chicken stock, the canned stuff is like brown salted water! It's very easy to make ~ and you'll love having the cooked chicken meat around for munching.
• 1 1 2 lg. or 2 small chickens
• hearts & gizzards from chicken
• 1 1 1 Tbsp. butter
• 1 1 1 Tbsp. oil
• 3 3 3 carrots, chopped
• 3 3 3 ribs of celery with the leaves, chopped
• 1 1 1 lg. onion, chopped
• 2 2 2 bay leaves
• 1 1 1 bunch parsley
• 8 8 8 peppercorns
• to to cover

Details

Servings 8

Preparation

Step 1

Reheat the stock; taste for strength ~ if not strong enough, boil down till taste is correct. Melt butter in skillet; add onion & slow-cook till soft & golden. Rinse barley & pick over for rocks. When stock is boiling, add barley & simmer till the barley is almost cooked through & soft. Add salt & pepper & chopped chicken ~ heat through and serve. Try a little Parmesan sprinkled on each serving. The amounts of vegetables & chicken can be
altered, depending on how much broth you have. From a large chicken, I usually get about 8 cups of stock. If you'd rather have chicken-potato soup, substitute diced potatoes for barley & add them at the same time as the other vegetables. Sometimes, for a change of flavor, I add thyme to the soup. Experiment!

Chicken Stock
In comparison to rich homemade chicken stock, the canned stuff is like brown salted water! It's very easy to make ~ and you'll love having the cooked chicken meat around for munching.

1 lg. or 2 small chickens
hearts & gizzards from chicken
1 Tbsp. butter
1 Tbsp. oil
3 carrots, chopped
3 ribs of celery with the leaves, chopped
1 lg. onion, chopped
2 bay leaves
1 bunch parsley
8 peppercorns
water to cover

Everything can be very roughly chopped & unpeeled as it will be cooked for hours & then strained out of the soup ~ all you want are the flavors & the vitamins. Melt butter & oil in a deep soup pot ~ put in the chopped hearts & gizzards & fry over med. high heat. When well browned, add ½ c. water to pot & scrape brown bits off bottom ~ add all remaining ingredients. Leave chicken whole, or cut in half only. Fill pot with water just to cover.
Bring to boil, then reduce heat to simmer & cook till chicken is done ~ about 1 hr. Remove chicken from pot; cool to touch. Remove all meat to your refrigerator & put the skin & bones back into the soup pot. Leave the pot simmering, with lid slightly askew, for about 3 hours or more ~ it doesn't really matter ~ but don't allow water level to get too low ~ add more when needed. When you're ready, strain the soup; discard the vegies & bones ~ put
the broth in the refrigerator, incovered, overnight. The fat will rise to the top, harden, & you can just scrape it right off. Beneath, you'll have a beautiful rich broth all ready to use for French Onion Soup (p. 34) & lots of others. If you want it for sauce or gravy, boil down till very strong; pour into ice cube trays; freeze; remove to plastic bags; use as needed.