Real Food Wednesday - Baked Chicken with Apples and Barley

Recently I learned a good bit about the health benefits of barley, and I thought, "Well, this is great, but I have no idea what to cook barley in or with, I need to get some ideas!" Thankfully, I stumbled onto this website (linked to just a sentence back), and it had a host of ideas (most of which I still have yet to try. An instant favorite, this recipe has a hint of Indian flavor (aka curry), and plays to my love of fruited chicken!

I did soak my barley, first, which isn't mentioned in the recipe. From what I've read, barley does not require a long soak time, just 6-8 hours (which is perfect for me because I can set it to soak in the morning and whip up dinner when I get home from work!). I soak the barley in a 1:2 (barley:water) ratio and added 2 T of whey. I then drained and rinsed the barley, and it was ready to go. It calls for pearl barley, but I used just plain ole' hulled barley and it came out just fine (amazing, actually). We make our own chicken stock on a fairly regular basis so I did not use any store-bought broth or reconstitute bouillon cubes (soooo hard to find w/o MSG, anyway), I simply diluted our stock 1:1 (stock/water), since it is much darker/stronger than soup broth.

OK, without further ado, here is the recipe for Baked Chicken with Apples and Barley. It came to us at just the right time, when we were trying to add variety to our recipe repertoire! I think it has to go into the rotation for the week after our Vegas trip...I will be wanting a nice home cooked meal when I get back!! Ooh! I just realized I want this for my BIRTHDAY dinner! That's our first whole day back! :)

Find more Real Food Wednesday posts here at Kelly the Kitchen Kop.