This is comfort food for a chilly evening.
It was not a loud and ballsy stew full of vim and vigor and spice, but rather a brothy, calm one, with clean, subtle flavors. This is definitely a stew, but could be described as chicken soup on good for your health steroids.
1 2-3 lbs whole organic chicken
3 leeks
4 cups assorted greens (I used a mix of collard greens and snow pea tips)
1 shallot, washed, whole and unpeeled
8 oz assorted mushrooms (I used shiitake, brown beech and maiitake)
2 cups pearled barley
2 large sprigs of sage (optional)
Salt
Place the chicken breast side down in a stockpot along with the shallot and sage. Cover with water and add 2 tsps of salt.
Bring the water to a boil. As soon as it does, lower the heat and cover the pan. Cook for 45 minutes before turning off the heat and letting the chicken cool down in its poaching liquid.
While the chicken is cooling down, cut the stems off of your mushrooms, remove the tough ribs from your winter greens and cut them into bite sized pieces, chop and clean your leeks well, and place the barley in a bowl of salted water after rinsing it several times.
Once the chicken is cool enough to touch, remove it to a bowl and manually remove as much of the flesh as you can. Set it aside. Discard the carcass. You should also remove the sage and shallot from the stock and discard them, though I tend to squeeze the shallot out of its skin, add a bit of salt, and lay claim to it as cook's treat before discarding the skin.
Drain the barley and add it to the stock along with the chopped collard greens or whatever green you are using that might benefit from a lengthy cooking time, like mustard greens, and the chopped leeks. Turn the heat to medium and cook the barley, leeks and collard greens, covered, for 30 minutes.
Remove the lid and add the mushrooms. Gently submerge them in the stock, cover and cook for an additional 10 minutes.
Add the snow pea tips and the chicken that you previously stripped from the chicken carcass. Turn the heat off but leave the pan covered for five minutes before serving. The residual heat will wilt the snow pea tips and reheat the chicken.
Check the broth for seasoning before serving. I served as is for a calmative dinner but you could put out Harissa or hot sauce for those who might want a bit more oomph to their meal.
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