Heartwarming Chicken and Pearl Barley Soup

Originally sourced from a Covent Garden soup this is the highly modified version that my kids put in high demand. Fresh flavours and ridiculously filling. This is perfect to have after a long winter dog-walk when your face is stinging, and you yearn for an aga to lean on.

Ingredients

• 5 Maris Piper potatoes
• 2 decent diced onions
• 3 good sized carrots
• 4 sticks of celery
• 2 ltrs good chicken stock
• 750g chicken breast
• 1 pack of smoked back or streaky bacon (get the nice stuff)
• Mushrooms, get a punnet and see how many you want to add
• 2 big tins of sweetcorn
• Mixed herbs
• Fennel seeds
• Spring onions
• Salt & Pepper

Method

1. Peal and cube the potatoes, then par boil them for 10 mins and put aside
2. Finely slice the chicken, add some soy sauce and then fry it to slightly caramelise the outside
3. Slice up the bacon and fry to caramelise the rind, save the rendered fat to cook the veg in
4. Put the chicken and bacon to one side
5. In the big soup pot add the onions, celery, carrots and garlic and cook them until softened
   • you could use a casserole dish here
   • Add the sliced white bits of the spring onions here
6. Add mushrooms and cook until they soften
7. Add the stock, herbs and the pearl barley and cook for 10 mins
8. Add in the potatoes, and the sweetcorn
9. Season well with salt, pepper, fennel
10. Cook this for 30 mins until the barley is softened and not chewy
11. At the last minute add the sliced up spring onion greens

Optional

• Add paprika or Cajun spices to the stock to wazz it up a bit
• Add a little white wine before you add the stock