Recipe Of The Week – Chicken, Vegetable & Barley Broth
This chicken broth is delicious, light yet filling and the root vegetables are interchangeable according to season and availability.
If you don’t own a slow cooker, there are a number of guidelines you can work with to ensure this dish comes out just as well from the oven:
- Use about a third more stock than this recipe states
- For step 2, preheat the oven to 163 degrees Celcius. Cover the food with a lid, put in the oven and leave to cook for 1 hour. Once you have removed the chicken, cook veg and barley for a further 15 minutes
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 350g mixed root vegetables e.g. celeriac, swede, sweet potato, parsnip and turnip
- 1 celery stick, thinly sliced
- 1 leek, halved lengthways, and thinly sliced
- 2 bay leaves, tied together with a small bunch of parsley springs
- 2 chicken quarters, skin removed
- 2 tbsp barley
- 1000ml chicken stock, boiled
- freshly ground black pepper
- fresh chives, snipped to serve
Method
- Put the root veggies, celery, leek and herb bundle into the slow cooker. Add the chicken quarters and barley, ensuring to tuck the barley between the chicken pieces. Pour over the boiling stock, adding extra to cover the barley If necessary. Season with freshly ground black pepper.
- Pop on the lid and cook on HIGH for 2 hours or until the chicken is cooked through. Remove the chicken from the cooker and leave to rest for 10 minutes. Replace the lid back onto the cooker and cook for a further 30 minutes until the veg and barley are tender.
- Once the chicken is cool enough, remove the meat from the bones and wrap in foil to keep warm.
- Once the vegetables and barley are tender, return the chicken to the slow cooker and heat through if necessary. Once heated through, remove and discard the herb bundle and serve the broth immediately and sprinkle with freshly chopped chives.
