Summer Vegetable Chicken and Barley Soup

It was unseasonably cold here today. I expect July to be in the 90's and today it didn't even hit 80. This put me in the mood for soup. I know, not really soup weather, but I was being dramatic.

I decided to make a vegetable soup with barley and chicken, mostly because those were the ingredients that I had. So I dove into my fridge and pantry and pulled out whatever looked good.

The only chicken I had was frozen chicken breast so I stuck that in my cast iron pot and boiled it in salty water until I could shred it. Yes, I boiled the chicken. Because its easy, that's why.

I added a lot of garlic to my soup, like 6-8 cloves. I really like the stuff and my philosophy on it is there is no such thing as too much garlic. I didn't mince it either. I like finding a big chunk of it, so I just coarsely chopped it.

I have to confess, the only time I've ever had barley before was in a Campbell's condensed soup. You can understand my blasè attitude towards the grain. I'd always thought it mushy, but it didn't end up that way at all. In fact, next to the corn, it was my favorite component of the whole soup. 

The corn though, let me tell you about the corn. I got really lucky at WalMart today. They had really yummy corn. So juicy and sweet. So lucky. And it was perfect for this summery soup. After I cut all the kernels off the cob, I threw the cob in the pot too and let it simmer with all the veggies. Good move, me! Even my husband said he could taste the sweet corn flavor throughout the whole soup. That made me happy. Don't you just love it when something you decide to do on a whim turns out awesome?

This was such an easy soup, if only a little time consuming (the barley actually takes about 15 min to cook.) It really hit the spot. I served it with the left over pita bread from Tuesday, only I brushed them with some olive oil, sprinkled on some garlic powder, shredded Parmesan cheese, and dried rosemary and broiled it in my oven for a few minutes.

Yes, I know its basil in the picture. I changed my mind, OK?!?!

This soup did an excellent job of warding off the chill of this actually, perfectly mild weathered day.

Summer Vegetable Chicken and Barley Soup

2 Cups shredded chicken

1 onion, sliced and sauteed in olive oil

6-8 cloves of garlic, chopped and sauteed

2 small zucchini, slice and sauteed

4 cups chicken broth

add water to desired consistency 

dried thyme

dried rosemary

1 ear of corn (don't forget the cob!)

1 1/2 cups barley

2 tomatoes 

salt and pepper to taste