fivemonkeys

I’ve been keeping my eye out for various food alternatives in an attempt to spruce up the weekly menu and get a little more variety in our diet. I’ve seen in a number of places that barley can be a great alternative to rice and pasta and when I saw this recipe for chicken and barley risotto with asparagus and sun-dried tomatoes at gotrimax.com, I had to try it.

To be honest, until recently, if you asked me what you could make with barley, I think my only answer would have been beer; Despite the fact that I rarely drink. I just never knew you could cook with it (which is why I’m on the search I suppose).

Barley is a whole grain with a great nutty flavor. The texture is similar to that of brown rice; A little bite on the outside and a little chewy on the inside. Barley is a great source of fiber and selenium, as well as phosphorus, copper and manganese.

So on to the recipe…

Chicken and Barley Risotto with Asparagus and Sun-dried Tomatoes

I’ve copied and pasted the recipe as is from trimax and highlighted the modifications I made. The most important thing I’ve ever learned about cooking comes from my wife: “Cooking is an art, not a science.” so adjust the ingredients to your liking.

• Olive oil cooking spray (I used straight extra-virgin olive oil, no spray)
• 1 1/3 cups chopped onions
• 2 – 3 cloves garlic, minced (This was (I assume) accidentally omitted since they call for garlic in the directions.)
• 1 tablespoon dry basil
• ½ teaspoon kosher or sea salt
• 6 sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil, chopped
• 4 cups no-fat chicken stock (I think I only used about 2 cups. Maybe a hair more.)
• 4 ounces white wine
• 2-3 pinches saffron, optional (I didn’t use b/c I didn’t have any)
• 1 ½ cups Perdue cooked chicken tenderloins, cut up
• 1 cup cooked barley
• 2 ½ cups, canned asparagus, drained and cut up (I used fresh asparagus that I steamed beforehand)
• 3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions:
Spray olive oil cooking spray in a non-stick skillet. Add onions, garlic, basil and salt and cook on medium low heat for 5 minutes or until onion is softened. Add sun-dried tomatoes, chicken stock, white wine and saffron and bring to a boil for about 3 minutes. Raise the head to medium, add chicken and cooked barley and cook 3-4 minutes. Add asparagus and cook for another two minutes or until heated through. Add Parmesan cheese and season with pepper and salt if needed. (I added a little more fresh basil on top as well)

gotrimax.com says this yields 2 Meals. We don’t eat huge meals so it was more like 3 or 4 meals for us.

This was a pretty easy meal to prepare and if you have all the ingredients portioned out ahead of time, it goes really quick. As for taste, I think the meal turned out great. The barley, as I said, has a nice nutty flavor and went well with all of the other flavors and textures. And as a bonus it tasted as good, or maybe even better, on the second day.

I’ll be trying some more “alternative” ingredients in the coming weeks so stay tuned.