Chicken & Pearl Barley Broth

Ingredients

• 600 g boneless skin-on chicken thighs
• 1.6 litres good chicken stock
• 180 g pearl barley, rinsed
• Crusty sourdough bread, to serve
• 3 carrots, peeled and cut into coins
• 2 parsnips, peeled and diced
• 3 celery sticks, sliced
• salt and white pepper
• 2 leeks, trimmed and sliced into rounds
• 1 onion, diced
• Natural yoghurt, to serve
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 3 bay leaves
• 15g fresh flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped

Method

1. Heat the olive oil in a large heavy pot over medium-high. Pat the chicken thighs dry — water means steam, and steam means no browning — then season generously all over with salt and white pepper. Lay them skin-side down in the hot oil in a single layer, working in two batches if your pot is crowded. Crowd the pan and the skin steams instead of crisping. Cook undisturbed for 5–6 minutes until the skin is deeply golden and releases easily, then flip and give the underside 2 minutes. Lift onto a plate.
2. Drop the heat to medium. Tip the diced onion into the chicken fat and cook for 5–6 minutes, stirring now and then, until soft, translucent and just starting to catch gold at the edges. Add the leeks, carrots, parsnips and celery, season with a good pinch of salt, and stir to coat. Cook for another 4–5 minutes until the edges soften and the pot smells sweet.
3. Nestle the chicken thighs back in among the vegetables along with any juices on the plate. Scatter in the rinsed pearl barley, tuck in the bay leaves, and pour over the chicken stock. Bring to a proper boil, then drop to a gentle simmer — barely a tremor on the surface.
4. Cover and cook for 50–55 minutes, stirring once or twice so the barley doesn't catch on the base. You're looking for plump, tender grains and chicken that gives way at the touch of a fork.
5. Lift the thighs out onto a board with tongs. Strip off and discard the skin, then shred the meat into rough, generous pieces with two forks. Tip it all back into the pot.
6. Fish out the bay leaves. Taste the broth and taste it again — it should be deeply savoury and warming, the barley silky from its own starch. Adjust with salt and white pepper now, at the pot, not at the table.
7. Stir in most of the chopped parsley off the heat. Ladle into deep bowls, scatter over the remaining parsley, finish with a thread of extra virgin olive oil and a crack of black pepper, and tear the crusty bread alongside for dunking. Freezes well in portions — the barley keeps drinking, so loosen with extra stock when you reheat.