Creamy Mushroom Soup with Chicken and Barley

To prepare the broth, rinse your chicken and remove its innards. Place in a soup kettle with 1 whole onion (trim off the root end, cut in half and peel), 1 or 2 cloves of garlic, chicken broth, salt and pepper to taste and enough water to cover. Simmer gently until chicken is cooked through. Remove from heat, reserving broth, and discard cooked onion and garlic. When cool enough to handle, remove meat from bones, shred, and return to pot with broth.

Meanwhile, dice 2 onions. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil over medium high heat and sauté the onions until they just begin to color. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Slice or chop your mushrooms into bite-sized pieces. I used a mix of white button mushrooms, portabellas and baby bellas, but you can use any mix you like. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in your pan and sauté half of the mushrooms until they give off all their liquid and just begin to color. Remove from the pan and repeat with the rest of the mushrooms.

Once your chicken is cooked, add the sautéed onions, mushrooms, carrots, barley and thyme to the soup pot . Adjust salt and pepper to taste and simmer gently until the barley is tender.

This soup is very good just like this, but to really send it over the top, once the barley is cooked, turn the heat down and add the parmesan and heavy cream. Stir until the cheese is melted and serve with crusty bread.