Chicken & Pearl Barley Risotto

Serves 4

Time 1 hour

Ingredients

350g chicken thighs, skin on 

500ml chicken stock 

100g butter, unsalted 

½ brown onion, diced 

1 carrot, diced 

100g spinach

200g pearly barley  

275ml white wine

½ bunch parsley, chopped 

100g parmesan 

Extra virgin olive oil

Method

Dice onion and carrot into an equal sized fine diced.

On a medium heat ideally in a cast iron pan, seal off chicken thighs skin side down in a dry pan, rendering the skin until crispy and then turn over seal off and remove chicken from pan. Finish cooking in a preheated oven at 160°C for about 12 minutes.

Add 1 tablespoon of your butter and touch of olive oil, then your onions and carrot to the pan, cook out until the onions are soft and translucent. At this stage add your pearl barley and mix for about 1 minute, deglaze the pan with white wine, and cook until reduced by half.

Add chicken stock in small ladles, allowing the pearl barley to cook slowly and evenly. (it is essential that you use a large enough pan, you don’t want the pearl barley to be high in your pan, you want it as much as possible to be contact with the base, This will avoid uneven cooking).

Once your pearl barley is cooked through add your parmesan, parsley, spinach and the rest of the butter and mix through to create a nice sauce consistency to your risotto.

Place the chicken thighs on top, finish with a little more parmesan.