Review: Smothered Chicken and Barley

[Joyce]

Just got around to making this dish (J/F 98). Thumbs WAY, WAY up on this one. One of the best all time recipes we have ever tried. Served it with salad and a crusty loaf of onion dill bread. The entire dinner was perfect. Recipe below for anyone who cares to try.


* Exported from MasterCook *

Smothered Chicken and Barley

Serving Size : 6 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Jan/Feb '98 Main Dish
Poultry

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
1 teaspoon ground cumin
3/4 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon dried mint flakes
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
6 (4-ounce) chicken thighs -- skinned
1/2 teaspoon vegetable oil
Cooking spray
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1 cup chopped red bell pepper
1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
3 1/2 cups low-salt chicken broth
1 1/4 cups uncooked pearl barley
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes -- drained
6 tablespoons chopped green onions

Combine the first 7 ingredients in a small bowl, and rub chicken with half of spice mixture.

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add chicken; cook 1 minute on each side or until chicken is browned. Remove the chicken from the skillet.

Recoat skillet with cooking spray; add chopped onion, bell pepper, and soy sauce. Cook over medium-high heat 3 minutes or until vegetables are lightly browned. Add broth, barley, tomatoes, and remaining spice mixture, and stir well. Add chicken to skillet, nestling into vegetable mixture. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat, and simmer 55 minutes or until chicken is done. Let stand 15 minutes. Sprinkle with green onions.

Serving Size: 1 chicken thigh, 1 cup barley mixture, and 1 tablespoon green onions

Description:
"Super-nutritious barley takes the place of rice in this
chicken-and-rice update. This simple casserole contains almost 10
grams of fiber, which is more than one-third of the recommended daily
intake."
Source:
"Cooking Light, January/February 1998, p.102"
Copyright:
"© Cooking Light"

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Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 286 Calories; 5g Fat (14.7% calories from fat); 25g Protein; 43g Carbohydrate; 9g Dietary Fiber; 54mg Cholesterol; 468mg Sodium. Exchanges: 2 Grain(Starch); 2 1/2 Lean Meat; 1 1/2 Vegetable; 0 Fat.

[Peggy]

Joyce,

I just recently discovered this recipe also, (while waiting for the March issue!). I agree that it was excellent!

Peggy

[slknight]

This is one of our favorite recipes. I've been making it since that issue came out. We always use chicken breasts too. Glad you liked it.

[stacie99]

Thanks for posting the recipe, it sounds delicious!!

[boisewinesnob]

Joyce,
thanks for the review! I am definitely going to make that because I love barley and red peppers and chicken.

Suzy

[Jewel]

This is a recipe I've been dying to try since I got on my barley/grain kick, and I'd forgotten about it! Thanks for the wakeup call!

Only problem is I try to stay away from chicken thighs, they're too expensive here and I just don't like all the fat I have to trim from them. Can you sub breasts and not have them dry out?

[Joyce]

I actually made this from neither. I used leg quarters that I bought on sale at 29cents a pound!! However it would probably be fine with breasts, just that the meat is a little dryer.

[MusicMom]

Your reviews inspired me to try the Smothered Chicken this week. Just one question- I only could find quick Quaker barley ("cooks in 10 minutes") at the grocery store. They didn't have any regular barley. Will the quick cooking barley work or should I add it in close to the end of the simmering time?

Vivian

[linda andrews]

my family loves this recipe too, I have been fixing it for years now. I have made one change, I use bonless, skinless chicken breast and cut into bite size pieces. What is great about this recipe besides tasting good, it has 10 gram of fiber!!!!

[Peggy]

Originally posted by MusicMom
Your reviews inspired me to try the Smothered Chicken this week. Just one question- I only could find quick Quaker barley ("cooks in 10 minutes") at the grocery store. They didn't have any regular barley. Will the quick cooking barley work or should I add it in close to the end of the simmering time?

Vivian

I would add it close to the end of the simmering time. How lucky to find quick cooking barley! I can only find the regular stuff and have to precook it for CL's quick cooking barley recipes. Hope you like the recipe. We really liked it here.

Peggy

[KValley]

Originally posted by Jewel
This is a recipe I've been dying to try since I got on my barley/grain kick, and I'd forgotten about it! Thanks for the wakeup call!

Only problem is I try to stay away from chicken thighs, they're too expensive here and I just don't like all the fat I have to trim from them. Can you sub breasts and not have them dry out?

Jewel- I used breasts instead of thighs- turned out great. Here's a review I posted in January for this recipe:

http://www.cookinglight.com/vbb/show...ight=smothered

Yum! Julie

[goldilocks]

Julie, did you use bone-in breasts? I would think the boneless breasts would dry out after such a long simmer. Did you cut down on the time?

[Jewel]

I actually found bone-in thighs at a decent price yesterday at Albertsons, so I'll be making this dish tonight! I think they were $2.59/lb. 6 thighs to the package and I think it was 2 lbs total. Can't wait to try this dish tonight! The only things I forgot at the store was the red pepper and the green onions, so I'll be making one more grocery stop tonight!

[newcook]

I just made this for supper tonight. It was really really delicious. I made it exactly as posted. The only problem I encountered was that my frying pan was not large enough to hold all of the ingredients so I ended up moving everything into my Superpot and it just came to the edge. Phew! it just made it.

This is a definite repeater.

Thanks for posting the recipe.

Daniele

[Pico]

Ah hah! The mystery is solved! My family first tried this at a "29 A.D." themed church dinner, and we all loved it. We got a typed copy of the recipe and have made it several times since, but I always wondered where it was originally from... figures it's CL.

[Lchiles]

We tried this about a week ago, and thought it was awesome. Didn't use all the chicken it called for, but used the other ingredients in full. Definite repeater. LaurieC

[KristinK]

More thumbs up from us!

This (aka Spiced Chicken and Barley, from CL Complete) was dinner last night - DBF had a basketball game and didn't get home until 9:30, so I figured this would be easy to reheat together in the skillet. It reheated very well, and he'll likely take the leftovers to work tomorrow.

I used 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, which I browned and only added for the last 30 minutes cooking time. They turned out perfectly tender and flavorful. I had no red pepper, so I used sliced carrot, and because I thought it needed a little more color, I added sugar snap peas during the last 10 minutes cooking time. I skipped the green onions. But I basically kept the recipe the same, right?

It wasn't quick, because of the long cooking time, but it was definitely easy. The long simmer gave me plenty of time to get my ironing done!

[meslgh]

We LOVE this recipe and have been making it for years! I was wondering if anybody had ever tried making this in a pressure cooker? (The pressure cooker is a recent goodie, and I'm still playing around with it.)

[pinky]

thanks for bringing this thread back up- just bought some barley yesterday and this looks delicious!

[Pony]

I can't believe I waited so long to try this. It was sooo very good and quite easy after you get things organized! We are having leftovers tomorrow. YUMMY!

[kcmo727]

I am bumping up this old thread because although this recipe has been in my "to-try" pile for at least three years, I finally just got around to making it tonight. It was worth the wait: easy to prepare and delicious.

Both DH and I (and even one of our picky kids) loved the chicken/barley combo. My only change was to double the spice rub so that the chichen thighs can really be slathered in spices. I bought dried mint just for the purpose of making this recipe and I was surprised at how good it tasted, very minty and fresh, which is not always the case with dried herbs.

So if you have been waiting to give this one a try, don't wait any longer! And make sure to double the spice rub.

[VAcooker]

I made this tonight and it was very well-received by my family. I needed a meal that could be put together quickly with minimum fuss and I wanted the meal to be 'one-pot' with grains. This one fit the bill perfectly. I was worried that the mint would be over-powering for DH (he is not a huge fan of mint), but I was pleasantly surprised when I tasted it and ascertained that the amount of mint was perfect.

The only change I would make would be to double the spice batch to more fully coat the thighs and to have more left over to sprinkle in the barley mixture. Oh, and my DD put chopped cilantro over top of her portion and really liked it that way (she would eat cilantro on her cereal if she could).

This is a definite repeater.