Chicken and Barley Casserole

A while back I bought some barley at the Asian market, because I had something I wanted to make with it. Fast forward several months, possibly even as much as a year, and there's me, standing in front of the cupboard looking at a bag of barley, thinking... "I had a plan for that!"

Absolutely NO idea what that plan might have been. None.

So... Chicken and Barley Casserole. I had chicken thighs in the freezer, and I needed to make room for other things. I had carrots left over from another recipe. It seemed like it was meant to be.

You're not going to believe this, but I'm pretty sure everything I used in the recipe is in this picture. When does that happen? Pretty much never. But I think I did it this time! I'll find out for sure when I actually write the recipe instead of just looking at the notes I scribbled while I was making it, but I'm pretty confident!

Chicken thighs (boneless, skinless), carrots, onion, garlic, barley, and then the seasonings: poultry seasoning, oregano, rubbed sage, thyme (dried from my garden), fresh parsley (also from my garden), and some peppered rosemary seasoning from Spice Merchants. Also, since I didn't want to open an entire quart of chicken broth and I didn't have any stock in the freezer, a chicken bouillon cube.

I started by chopping everything, since I wasn't sure how long it was going to take and I hate overcooking anything. Plus, I like the look of diced things on my cutting board and I also wanted to show off the fabulous new chef's knife a very dear friend sent me as a random present.

Aha! I did leave something out of the picture! I coated my skillet with nonstick cooking spray to brown the thighs. Anyway, I specifically chose a regular instead of a nonstick skillet so there would be browned bits to scrape up. I seared them about 5 minutes on each side to brown them and seal in the juices, then removed them to a plate while I went on to the next step.

I added the carrots, onion, garlic, and all the seasonings except the parsley to the skillet and sauteed, stirring pretty frequently to prevent sticking and burning, for a couple of minutes until they were starting to soften.

Then I added a cup of boiling water, the bouillon cube, and the barley, increased the heat and brought it to a boil. Once the bouillon cube was soft enough to break up and mix into the liquid, I let the whole thing boil for about a minute, then poured it into a 2-quart greased casserole dish.

I laid the thighs over top, slightly overlapping to make them fit, then poured the juices collected on the plate over the top. After I put a cover on the dish to prevent the chicken from drying out and to ensure the moisture would stay inside to plump the barley, into the oven it went at 350F for about an hour.

Once the barley was tender, I pulled it out and let it stand, covered, for about 15 minutes. You could probably go less, but that's how long I left it to stand while I did other things. Then I pulled the cover, scattered the minced parsley over the top, and served.

I served this with some Carrots Marsala, some leftover cream biscuits from another meal, and a bag salad. It ended up being a tasty, filling dinner that fell well within my mother's ultra-low-carb diet, so I'm calling it a double win!

Chicken and Barley Casserole

Serves 4

4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 1 1/4 pounds)
3/4 cup yellow onion, chopped
3/4 cup carrot, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1/4 teaspoon rubbed sage
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon peppered rosemary seasoning (I used Spice Merchants)
3/4 cup water
1 chicken bouillon cube
1/2 cup pearl barley
2 tablespoons fresh parsley

Preheat oven to 350F; coat a casserole dish with nonstick cooking spray.

Spray a large skillet with nonstick cooking spray and place over medium-high heat. When hot, add chicken thighs and cook 5 minutes per side to brown. Remove from pan and keep warm.

Add onion, carrot, garlic, and seasonings to skillet and cook, stirring frequently, 2-3 minutes. Add water, bouillon cube, and barley to pan. Increase heat to high and bring to a boil, breaking up bouillon cube to incorporate it. Boil for 1 minute, then pour mixture into prepared casserole.

Place chicken on top of barley mixture. Cover casserole and bake at 350F for 1 hour. Remove from oven; let stand, covered, 10-15 minutes. Sprinkle with parsley to serve.

Serving Size: 260g

Calories: 264

Calories from Fat: 72

Total Fat: 8.0g

Trans Fat: 0.0g

Cholesterol: 101mg

Sodium: 681mg

Total Carbohydrates: 24.7g

Dietary Fiber: 5.1g

Sugars: 2.3g

Protein: 27.3g