Chicken, Mushroom, and Barley Soup

serves 8

Barley is a natural thickener for soups, and it becomes creamy in a slow cooker. This soup is thick with chicken, chewy barley, and meaty cremini mushrooms; the added infusion of sherry and dried porcini mushrooms give it personality. It is also a great way to use the leftovers from that rotisserie chicken you bought earlier in the week. If you don’t have leftover cooked chicken, it’s easy enough to sauté chicken before adding it to the pot.

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 leeks, chopped, using the white and some of the tender green parts
• 3 stalks celery with leaves, chopped
• 3 medium carrots, chopped
• 1 pound cremini mushrooms, sliced
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 cup pearl barley
• 6 cups chicken broth
• ¼ cup dried porcini mushrooms
• ¼ cup dry sherry
• 2 cups bite-size pieces cooked chicken

Instructions

heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the leeks, celery, carrots, cremini mushrooms, thyme, and bay leaf and sauté until the vegetables are softened, about 3 minutes. Transfer the contents of the skillet to the insert of a 5- to 7-quart slow cooker and stir in the barley, broth, dried mushrooms, sherry, and chicken.

cover the slow cooker and cook on low for 6 to 7 hours, until the barley is tender.

remove the bay leaf before serving.