Mr. Lazy Cook is at it again. What to do with left over white meat from a delicious Costco rotisserie chicken? Also, it is the middle of a heat wave over much of the country, and certainly here in Chicago. That isn’t conducive to spending a lot of time preparing meals.
It happens that I have on hand a large amount of previously cooked barley. I have mentioned in previous lazy cookery posts that I like to work ahead by precooking several day’s to a week’s worth of one dish that I can then mix and match to create simple and fast meals.
So thin you don't see the actual soup till you start eating it with your fork
When I precook the barley, I don’t use plain water any more. I use chicken broth that comes in cartons. This also happens to be a Costco ingredient. Six quart cartons cost less than $10. The bottom line is that the barley is quite tasty cooked this way and doesn’t need a lot of help in the flavor department.
Back to the left over chicken. I cut up most of a skinned chicken breast into cubes and add some cut up dark meat also for flavor variety. Add to this about a cup of the barley. Mix it up very well.
Now, for the thinnest soup appellation, I pour about a quarter of a cup of chicken broth over it and put it in the microwave for about 90 seconds.
What comes out is a really lovely juicy chicken barley dish.
Toss some parmesan cheese on top and dig in.
Nutritionally:
One cup of barley has 193 calories, 0.7 grams of fat of which 0.1 gram is saturated fat, no cholesterol, 4.7 mg of sodium, 44.3 grams of carbohydrates, 6 grams of fiber and 3.5 grams of protein.
The dark chicken meat has 24 calories, 1.2 grams of fat of which 0.4 grams was saturated fat, 14.4 mg of cholesterol, 55 mg of sodium, 0.1 grams of carbohydrates, no fiber and 2.8 grams of protein.
The chicken breast has 17 calories, 0.1 grams of total fat, 7.6 mg of cholesterol, 228.3 mg of sodium, 0.5 grams of carbohydrates, no fiber and 3.5 grams of protein. I think the sodium count assumes the skin was left on the chicken. Mine isn’t.
Tony
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Reblogged this on One Regular Guy Writing about Food, Exercise and Living Past 100 and commented:
I haven’t done anything by Mr. Lazy Cook in a while and I thought you might enjoy this very tasty soup.
Tony
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