Oven-baked pearl barley pilaf with chicken and mushrooms
Often made with basmati rice, this easy, filling meal is one of the most popular weeknight dinners in Romania
Ingredients
3 tbsp sunflower oil
1 whole chicken, jointed (ask the butcher or use 8 chicken pieces)
2 onions, sliced
300g pearl barley
¼ celeriac, peeled and diced
2-3 sticks celery, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 red pepper, diced
400g tin chopped tomatoes
200g chestnut mushrooms, quartered
600ml chicken stock
2 tsp fine sea salt
ground to make 1 tsp black peppercorns
25g butter
a small bunch flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
Step by step
Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. In a casserole, heat the oil and brown the chicken pieces on all sides until really caramelised. Transfer to a plate. In the same oil, cook the onions for 10 minutes over a medium heat until they begin to char. Add the pearl barley and coat the grains well with the oil, cooking for a few more minutes.
Tip the vegetables into the pan with the chopped tomatoes, mushrooms, stock, salt and pepper, and stir gently. Add the pieces of chicken back in, then cover the pan with kitchen foil and put the lid on top.
Cook in the oven for 40 minutes, then uncover the casserole and cook for a further 10 minutes or until the barley is tender and most of the liquid has been absorbed. Roughly chop the butter and dot the pieces around over the top. Sprinkle with parsley to serve, if you like.
