Sweet Potato Chicken Barley Soup

I love sweet potato. I love it by itself, baked and with some butter. I love it in hash (so help me, I'd kill to emulate the sweet potato hash I had a few months ago. The best accompaniment to poached eggs). It's great as a potato pancake. And this place makes the best sweet potato fries I have ever had. When I saw this recipe, a sweet potato soup, I knew I had to have it.



I love how soup is so easy to throw together. Omit things you don't want, add extra of others, it's so versatile. The original recipe called for 16 servings (that's a lot of soup!) so I cut it a bit. It really didn't take very long to do!

There's a little bit of sweet in the soup (likely from the potato!) but it doesn't taste quite as salty as other soups I've made-I'd consider that a good thing. It's a completely different soup than I've tried before.



What really did it for me though was the dill. I was really surprised at how the dill just made the soup complete, and way better and much more flavorful than without it. Sometimes if a recipe calls for dill to be sprinkled over the top, or parsley or whatever, I might not put it in there, because really, it's a garnish and I didn't think it added all that much (you might feel differently-totally your prerogative). I'm really glad I did this though-it made it so much better.

It's really simple and it's really tasty. All I'd suggest is that you have a great knife to cut the veggies-you'll be happy about that.

Sweet Potato Chicken Barley Soup (recipe by Marjorie Druker, New England Soup Factory, found on The Phantom Gourmet website)

**Note** I have put the original measurements for this recipe, in case you are making this for a crowd-it is supposed to serve 16. I have added my changes in parentheses.

2 tsp olive oil (I used a butter spray because *someone* gave me that idea. I noticed no real difference other than sauteeing the veggies took a little longer)
1 large spanish onion, peeled and diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
½ cup celery, diced
3 cups carrots, sliced (I used 3 carrots. Not a huge deal)
2 parsnips, grated (I only used 1)
4 large sweet potatoes, peeled and diced (I used 2)
1¼ cups pearl barley (Just over a half cup)
2½ -3 quarts chicken stock (I used 8 cups. This is where I feel like I should have added more, but honestly, my pot was too full. Now, I kind of have a really thick stew. Not that I'm complaining-it's merely a thought to you to use more stock. The barley will suck the liquid, trust me).
3 cups chicken, poached and diced (I used about a pound and a half of boneless chicken breast-see below for instructions on how to poach chicken)
¼ cup freshly chopped dill
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

In a large pot heat the olive oil (or butter spray), add garlic, onions, celery and carrot and saute 8 minutes. Add the parsnips, barley, chicken and chicken stock. Bring to a boil and simmer on medium-high heat for 30 minutes. Add the sweet potatoes and cook an additional 30 minutes. Add dill and season.


How to poach the chicken: Fill a pan with about 4 cups of water and let come to a boil. Add the chicken in a single layer and cook for about 7 minutes, turning once about halfway through. Let the chicken cool in the water filled pan for roughly 20 minutes and then transfer to a cutting board. It will look white and cooked on the outside and raw on the inside.

Don't worry, it's supposed to look like that. It will finish cooking while in the soup.