Arroz Caldo, healthy style (pearl barley and chicken congee)

One of my favorite childhood comfort foods is the Filipino dish called "arroz caldo"--literally, rice soup. Like most of my mom's home cooking, her arroz caldo recipe is easy--brown some chicken, add some fish sauce (patis!) and a couple gloves of garlic, toss in a cup of long-grain rice and about 8 cups of water, toss in a few hunks of ginger, season with salt and pepper, and walk away for 90 minutes or an hour until you have a tasty, aromatic porridge. Because I'm trying to cut down on white rice, I decided to mix up a pot or arroz caldo with some pearl barley.




While the barley didn't turn totally soft the way white rice does, I still loved the outcome. The barley stayed al dente, like risotto (same ideas, basically), and absorbed the aromatic liquid while giving off just enough starch to thicken it up.

Arroz Caldo with Pearl Barley

Brown in a stew pot:
1 whole chicken, divided, in just a sheen of oil

Add and color:
1/2 chopped onion and two mashed garlic cloves

Season with:
1 healthy dash of salt (1/2 tsp) and 5 grinds of pepper

Stir in:
1 slosh of patis (about 2 Tbs)
3 hunks (about the size of an average-sized grape) of peeled and slightly smashed ginger

Then add and stir in:
1 cup pearl barley

And finally add and bring to a boil:
8 cups of water or chicken stock.

Let the whole thing simmer until it's either al dente or softer--at least 90 minutes. If you have it, top with green onion or a squeeze of kalamnsi (Filipino citrus).