A girl can never have too many pearls

In complete honestly, despite considering myself a fairly adventurous eater and cook, the only time in my life I can recall having barley is in beef & barley soup. I don't have a good excuse as to why but I finally decided it was time when I came across this recipe.

This salad combines a lot of different ingredients and flavors that I absolutely love. However, it is a perfect venue for me to express how easy it is to change and adapt recipes. I'm not normally a huge fan of feta cheese but found that it worked really well with all of the other flavors. The lesson to be learned is to not shy away from a recipe if you just don't like one or two ingredients (I'll caveat this to say that if it is clearly the main ingredient, there is an exception to my rule). But if you don't like feta, or olives, or whatever it might be - the recipe will be fine without it. And if you're wanting to make it gluten free, brown rice or quinoa could easily be subbed for the barley. Don't let a few miscellaneous ingredients scare you away from an otherwise amazing recipe! *now stepping down from my soapbox*

Greek Salad with Chicken and Pearled Barley (adapted from Cooking Light, January 2010)
Serves 4

Ingredients:
6 boneless, skinless chicken breast tenderloins (or 2 breasts)
3 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
3 1/2 cups reduced sodium chicken broth
1 cup pearled barley
1 cucumber, peeled seeded and cubed
1 cup grape or cherry tomatoes
1 medium red bell pepper
1/3 cup pitted kalamata olives
1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion
1 tablespoon fresh basil ribbons
1 tablespoon fresh italian (flat leaf) parsley, roughly chopped
3 oz crumbled feta cheese
Zest and juice of one lemon
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3/4 teaspoon sea salt

Preparation:

The barley takes a little bit to cook. Get it started first by bringing 2 1/2 cups of the chicken broth to a boil. Add the cup of uncooked barley, cover the pot and reduct the heat. My barley needed to simmer for 45 minutes to absorb all of the liquid which was plenty of time to prepare everything else for the salad.


To cook the chicken, first sprinkle it with 1/4 teaspoon of salt and some pepper and brown it for 1-2 minutes on each side in a non-stick skillet that has been coated with olive oil. Once the chicken has browned, pour in the remaining cup of chicken broth, cover the pan and reduce the heat to a simmer. Allow the chicken to cook around 10 minutes before removing it from the pan.

Now is the time to start prepping all the veggies for the salad. You will want to halve or quarter the tomatoes and cut the bel pepper into bite-sized cubes. Before chopping the cucumber into bite-sized pieces, it's best to seed it. If you've never done it before, here's how. Just cut the peeled cucumber in half and run a spoon down the center to scoop out the seeds.

I just started throwing the ingredients of the salad into a large bowl as I chopped them. Hold off on the basil and parsley until the end so that the leaves don't get bruised. I've found that the best way to cut fresh basil is to stack the leaves, roll them up and cut it into ribbons.

To prepare the dressing, zest one lemon into a small mixing bowl and add 3 tablespoons of olive oil, the juice of the lemon, the redwine vinegar, garlic, thyme and a 1/2 teaspoon of salt.

Once the chicken has cooled, shred it. After the barley has finished cooking, fluff it and mix it with all of the veggies, the feta and the dressing. I actually preferred this salad a bit chilled, which allowed the flavors to really come together in the fridge.

I love love love this combination of flavors and will definitely be cooking more with these lovely little pearls in the future!