It’s always the right season for chicken barley soup. It’s hearty, healthy and the perfect way to get some veggie servings to your loved ones.
September is that time of year when you crave a warm bowl of chicken barley soup. The fresh herbs hint at summer but the hearty warm soup is perfect to welcome fall.
As the weather cools, add this soup to your menu.
It’s a very simple recipe that doesn’t require much effort. Dicing the veggies and meat is the brunt of the work. It’s worth every ounce of effort since this soup is upper healthy. Check out our section below on how to speed up this recipe if you don’t have an hour to spare.
With just one bowl you get meat, veggies and grains as well as all the benefits of the fresh herbs. You can’t go wrong with a cup of this easy and delicious chicken barley soup.
Chicken Barley Soup for Babies
Here is a fun bonus! This soup is fantastic for babies.
When making this for my 9-month-old, I add the herbs in step 6 but skip the salt and pepper. I scoop some of the soup out for baby and blend it. Check out our short video to see how easy this is: Chicken Barley Soup for Baby
Then I add the salt and pepper to the rest of the pot. Check out our quick video for how easy this is.
Chicken Barley Soup for Toddlers
This soup is also great for toddlers. To make this chicken barley soup more toddler friendly I dice all the vegetables and chicken into very small pieces. No bigger than a quarter inch.
TIP: If your toddler is turned off my herbs skip the herbs the first few times you serve it to let your kiddo get used to the soup and slowly add them in starting with a quarter of the suggested amount and working your way up every time you make it.
Preparing Easy Homemade Chicken Barley Soup
Ingredients
Chicken drumsticks: A section of the leg, chicken drumsticks contain dark meat and are covered in skin. They are juicy and when baked or grilled very crispy. Chicken is a great source of protein and other vital nutrients.
Mirepoix: Onion, celery and carrot, cooked (usually for a longer period) without being browned are called mirepoix. The juices and flavours released by the onion, carrots and celery, add so much flavour to the soup.
Potato: I use yellow flesh potatoes in this recipe. Yellow potatoes are a bit more sweet and softer so overcooking them will make them mushy quickly. White flesh potatoes are a bit more starchy and will hold their shape better so feel free to use white flesh potatoes instead.
Parsley: Parsley is a dark green herb used as a garnish or a flavouring. The two varieties that are most common are flat-leaf and curly parsley. They are very similar in flavour however their leaves and texture are different. As the names suggest, flat-leaf parsley has
flat leaves that are very similar to cilantro, whereas curly parsley has rougher and curly-looking leaves. Both are very rich in vitamins C and K and antioxidants, among other nutrients.Dill: Dill is a herb that has soft almost feathery leaves that are used for medicinal purposes as well as to flavour food. Dill adds nutrition with high vitamins C and A content and moderate iron content.
Barley: You can use pot barley and pearl barley interchangeably. The difference between pot barley and pearl barley is that pot barley only has the outermost husk removed. Pearl barley on the other hand is more refined. Pot barley does take a little longer to cook so make sure it’s fully cooked before adding the herbs.
Garlic: Garlic is a bulb that is edible and is grown in soil. Though the green shoots it sprouts, called garlic scapes, are also edible, we are referring to the actual bulb that the scapes grow from. Garlic bulbs are made up of multiple cloves and depending on the variety you may have anywhere from 4 to 10 cloves, if not more.
Can chicken barley soup be vegetarian?
Absolutely! Skip step one and start with prepping your veggies. If you want to supplement with more flavour, use a store-bought vegetable broth instead of water. Try it with green lentils to substitute the protein if required.
How to Make Chicken Barley Soup
Add the water and drumsticks to a large pot and place on a burner on medium heat. Once the water starts to boil, cook for 20 minutes.
While the chicken cooks, prep your veggies. Dice the onion, carrot, celery and potatoes. Put the potatoes in a separate bowl as they will be added to the soup at a different time. Also, wash and chop the dill and parsley, set them aside, and peel the garlic.
Next, add the diced onion, celery, carrots and whole garlic cloves to the pot. Cook everything for 10 minutes.
Add the potatoes and barley and cook for another 20 minutes. This timing will depend on how big the pieces are. To test the potatoes pierce one with a fork and it should be almost soft right through the middle. The barley should also be almost soft.
The barley cooks in the soup so add uncooked barley to the pot.
You will cook the soup for another 10 minutes or so after this point so the barley and potatoes should take about 30 minutes in total to fully cook.
Remove the drumsticks from the pot and take off all the meat. You can also use the skin, I personally don’t. Chop the meat into a small dice. You can do this step 5-10 minutes earlier to give the chicken time to cool before dicing. Add the diced chicken back into the pot.
The potatoes should be cooked through at this point. You can check by piercing a potato with a fork, it should be soft the whole way through.
Add the chopped parsley, dill, salt and pepper, and cook for another 5 minutes.
How do I speed up this recipe?
The longest part is cooking the chicken. To speed this up, use store-bought chicken stock instead of water and start on step 2. While you’re cooking the vegetables, chop or shred a quarter of a rotisserie chicken and add it to the pot when directed to do so. This should reduce the cooking time of this recipe to 35 minutes.
Substitutions
Chicken drumsticks: You can use any part of the chicken however it will taste best with bone-in. You can also use rotisserie chicken instead and skip step 1. See our tip on how to speed up this recipe above.
Barley: Pot barley or pearl barley work great in this soup. However, if you’re not a barley fan, try it with orzo or rice instead.
Serving Homemade Chicken Barley Soup
This soup is so hearty you don’t need to serve anything else with it. Serve it in a bowl or your favourite soup mug. This soup makes an excellent complete lunch!
How to store chicken barley soup?
This soup will keep well in an air-tight container in the fridge for up to 7 days. This soup also freezes well. The only caution is that the barley may absorb more liquid. If this happens you will just need to add some chicken broth upon defrosting. Defrost overnight in the fridge or, if frozen in a microwave-safe container, heat up in the microwave for a few minutes. Watch out for hot spots!
Let us know in the comments if you have any questions. And if you like this recipe be sure to leave us a five-star rating below.
Are you looking for dinner ideas? Check out our recipes:
Easy Homemade Chicken Barley Soup (Krupnik) Recipe
Equipment
- Large pot
- Knife
Ingredients
- 4 chicken drumsticks (note 1)
- 8 cups water
- ½ small onion small
- 1 celery stalk
- 1 carrot large
- 1 lb Potatoes
- 1 tbsp fresh parsley
- 1 tbsp fresh dill
- ¼ cup pot barley (note 2)
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
Instructions
- Add the water and drumsticks to a large pot and place on a burner on medium heat. Once the water starts to boil, cook for 20 minutes.8 cups water, 4 chicken drumsticks
- While the chicken cooks, prep your veggies. Dice the onion, carrot, celery and potatoes. Put the potatoes in a separate bowl as they will be added to the soup at a different time. Also, wash and chop the dill and parsley, set them aside, and peel the garlic.½ small onion, 1 celery stalk, 1 carrot, 1 lb Potatoes, 1 tbsp fresh parsley, 1 tbsp fresh dill, 2 cloves garlic
- Add the onion, celery, carrots and garlic cloves (whole) to the pot and cook for 10 minutes.½ small onion, 1 celery stalk, 1 carrot, 2 cloves garlic
- Add the potatoes and barley and cook for another 20 minutes or until the potatoes are almost soft when pierced with a fork and the barley is al dente. This timing will depend on how big the potato pieces are.¼ cup pot barley, 1 lb Potatoes
- Remove the chicken from the pot and take the meat off the bones. I don’t include the skin but you can. Chop the meat into small pieces and add it back to the pot.
- Add the chopped parsley, dill, salt and pepper, and cook for another 5 minutes.1 tbsp fresh parsley, 1 tbsp fresh dill, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp ground black pepper
