Slow-cooker spring chicken and herb soup – Recipe

Slow-cooker spring chicken and herb soup – Recipe

An alternative option is to use a whole chicken instead of the thighs in this soup. Shred the leg and thigh meat as per the recipe and keep the breast meat for sandwiches.

Ingredients:

4 large chicken thighs, bone-in, skin and extra fat removed
2 onions, roughly chopped
1 tsp English mustard powder
2 chicken stock pots
2 tbsp wholegrain mustard
2 bay leaves
2.5 litres/4½ pints boiling water
300g/10½oz baby Chantenay carrots, scrubbed and larger ones halved
125g/4½oz pearl barley
200g/7oz frozen peas
200g/7oz frozen broad beans
15g/½oz fresh flatleaf parsley, finely chopped
10g fresh tarragon , finely chopped
10g fresh chives , finely snipped
½ lemon, juice only
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

Preheat the slow cooker to the lowest setting and boil the kettle.

Put the chicken thighs and onions into the slow cooker with the mustard powder, stock pots, wholegrain mustard and bay leaves. Pour over the boiling water, put on the lid and leave to cook for 5 hours.

Stir in the carrots and pearl barley. Continue cooking for a further hour until the carrots and barley are tender. Turn off the slow cooker and remove the chicken. Remove and discard the bay leaves, and stir in the peas and broad beans. Re-cover.

Shred the chicken meat from the bones into small pieces. Stir the chicken, herbs and lemon juice into the soup and season with salt and pepper. Ladle straight into bowls, or leave to cool to room temperature before chilling and reheating over the next day or two.