Zesty Chicken and Barely Soup

Ingredients:

3 chicken drum sticks

4 cloves of garlic finely minced

2 Carrots, diced

1 Onion, chopped

2 Stalks of Celery, diced

½ cup of Pearl Barley, rinsed

4-5 cups of Chicken Stock

1 tsp of dried Thyme

2 Tbsp of Oil

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp of onion powder

Zest of one lemon

Juice of one lemon

Salt and Pepper to taste

 

 

Process

1.     Boil the chicken until done in 2 cups of water, shred the chicken and set aside, reserve the chicken stock for later use.

 

2.     In a pressure cooker, ( you can use a large pot if you don’t have pressure cooker) preheat the oil over medium high heat.

 

3.      In the same pot, add the chopped onion, carrot and celery and minced garlic season with a little salt and pepper and cook the veggies until they have cooked down a bit, this should take about 5 minutes.

 

4.      Add thyme, garlic powder and onion powder and cook for 1 minute.

 

5.     Add washed pearl barley and add the chicken stock. Cover the lid of pressure cooker and cook on low heat for 45 minutes, by this time the  barley will be cooked the soup will thicken up on its own.

 

6.     Add salt and pepper to taste and garnish with parsley, add the shredded chicken, add the lemon zest and lemon juice and serve hot.

 

Note : If you do not have a pressure cooker you can cook in a large pot, the cooking time will increase to 1.5 hr and you will have to stir the soup at intervals.