Glampingbaba’s Best Peasant Chicken and Barley Soup

2 chicken backs with legs attached
2-3 thighs
12 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
1 heaping teaspoon chicken broth powder
4 stalks celery cut in big chunks
4-5 carrots cut into big chunks
½ onion chunked
3 red potatoes chunked
1 bay leaf
½ teaspoon sage
Salt and pepper to taste
Parsley
Cold Beer

This is beer drinkin' cookin'.  No wine. I always buy fresh chicken parts such as these in bigger packages, separate them and bag them together like this so when I want soup I have all the parts frozen in one bag. I choose these pieces for the bone and because I prefer dark meat versus white breast meat. I find it too dry. I take the frozen bag out at night, leave it on the counter and it is thawed by morning. I also refrigerate the chicken in the morning and it is ready to cook if I choose to make soup after work.

Place chicken in 12 cups cold water. Bring to a boil and skim off foam after about 5 minutes. Add chicken stock powder( Knorr’s) and 1 tsp. salt. Simmer covered for an hour. I usually like to strain my broth at this point into a fresh pot, just to get all the junk out of the broth. I also debone my chicken meat, discarding skin and bones and set it aside covered. I find that leaving the chicken meat in the broth, while veggies cook just make the chicken chunks mushy. They are nicer when added to the broth later.

With this soup I like my vegetables cut up quite chunky rather than diced. Peasants didn’t dice, they chunked, enjoying every morsel. Dicing is for diva’s and today I am a peasant. Add all veggies into the broth. Add sage, bay leaf and salt and pepper to taste. Add ½ cup rinsed barley. Bring to a boil and turn down heat and simmer for an hour covered. When veggies and barley are tender, add cooked chicken chunks and turn off stove. Cover and wait 5 minutes, pull out the bay leaf, discard and dig in. Garnish with parsley and pepper. I always like soup better the next day so I make it in the evening and refrigerate it. But I have a bowl before bedtime. This gets better with time. If there is any left by the 4th day it is delicious.

Veggie soup...I've done this when I've had  no chicken. Used veggie broth and substituted chick peas for chicken.  You're still a peasant but the chick peas are canned. You're a city peasant.

Really good soup with rye bread and butter, a blanket and a good movie.