Things I discovered with this dish:
- It is now very hard to buy any chicken pieces with bones in them in Australia, apart from wings, drumsticks, or whole birds.
- Pearl barley cooks well when boiled up in a fair amount of stock and then left for several hours, then finished off with a little more heat.
Given the above lack of bone-in thigh pieces, I prepped this in several stages (bone-in drumsticks are a bit messy to eat in a stew):
Stock and meat prep (earlier in the day):
De-bone drumsticks, make stock from bones and some skin with a few of the usual suspect veg and good seasoning, simmering gently as per normal. Meanwhile soak meat in strong brine. No need to cut up.
Pearl barley
As above, boil up for an initial gentle roll in your fresh and very well-seasoned stock, and leave. (Still early on in the day, looking at a couple of hours here). Heat up again later and finish up as desired.
The rest
Mirapois veg, plenty of it, good seasoning, one chili (or as desired), fresh oregano or other herbs as wished. Fry off the meat, deglaze the pan. Add meat, veg, herbs, and glaze to pressure cooker with a splash of white wine and pressure cook for 30 mins.
Then
Gently strain the cooking juices from the solids, return juices to pan and thicken with some cornflour. Add the pearl barley to this 'gravy', check it's cooked and thickened/stewy to your liking. Gently add the cooked veg and meat, as it'll be pretty damn soft and you don't want to mush it. Serve in bowls with a sprinkling of cheese.
Hearty and bloody tasty, and probs not bad health-wise either.
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