Recipe for barley salad with chicken
In this delightful, filling salad, you get a combination of pearl barley, chicken, apples, fennel, and greens – hearty, rustic, and wonderfully balanced with a mild mustard dressing.
Pearl barley is essentially polished barley grains and has a consistency somewhat similar to rice – just coarser. Pearl barley is indeed a healthy alternative to rice, as it has a higher fiber content – it keeps you full for longer and can be used in risottos, salads, stews, etc.
I quite like using pearl barley in my dishes; I think it has a bit more flavor than rice, and I like the slightly coarser texture and the many uses it offers.
In this salad, it provides a fine contrast to the fresh greens, the spiced chicken, and the crisp apples. The fennel complements the salad well with its mild anise flavor – I think it makes the salad a bit more interesting by adding another flavor note. You pause and think, “Wait, what was that?” as your taste buds explore. But if you’re not a fan of fennel, it can easily be made without it.
I eat this salad as a meal salad, and it pairs well with some delicious bread on the side.
Barley Salad with Chicken
Ingredients
- 120 gram Pearl Barley
- 200 gram Chicken Breast Fillet
- Butter for frying
- Salt and Pepper
- 1/2 pcs. Fennel about 75 grams
- 3 pcs. Scallion - Spring Onions
- 2 pcs. Apples
- 1 handful Salad green, e.g., lamb's lettuce
Dressing
- 27 gram Olive Oil
- 15 gram Apple Cider Vinegar
- 5 gram Dijon Mustard
- 7 gram Honey liquid
- Salt a little
Instructions
- Set the barley to boil in lightly salted water. They need about 20 minutes, so they are tender but have a bite.
- Cut the chicken into smaller pieces and brown them in a bit of butter in a pan, season with salt and pepper.
- Cut the fennel into small pieces and the spring onions into thin slices, add to the pan, and sauté for 3-4 minutes.
- Drain the barley and rinse with cold water, let them drip off.
- Mix all the ingredients for the dressing well and toss with the barley.
- Also add the chicken, fennel, and spring onions to the barley.
- Cut the apple into small cubes and add to the barley along with the salad, and it is ready.