Chicken & "Rice" Soup

I remember on cold days (well, as cold as it gets in Louisiana anyway) my Mom would sometimes heat up a can of Campbell's Chicken & Rice soup. As a kid, I loved it! And as an adult that didn't think about how much sodium was in there, I loved it. I tried eating some a couple of years ago and...YUCK! Way too salty! And what's with the grease in there anyway? So what to do? Panic? Who me? Noooooo...I played around with it until I hit on the perfect chicken and rice soup!

Chicken & "Rice" Soup

Chicken:
1 bag frozen boneless, skinless chicken breast pieces, defrosted
1 teaspoon olive oil
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon marjoram
1 teaspoon thyme
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 350F. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. Combine the olive oil, lemon juice, and the herbs and spices into a paste. Rub well onto the chicken then place chicken on baking sheet. Bake for about 15-20 minutes until chicken temperature reaches 165F. (FYI: If you're not making soup, this is terrific baked chicken; just make sure you don't over-bake so that your pouch won't tolerate it). Remove from oven and let cool.

Soup:
1 bag carrots, peeled and sliced
6-8 stalks celery, sliced
2 quarts chicken stock
1 envelope beef bouillon
1/2 teaspoon marjoram
1/2 teaspoon thyme
salt and pepper to taste
garlic powder to taste

Place all the vegetables in a Dutch oven. Cut the cooled chicken into cubes and add to the vegetables. Add the herbs and spices and finally the chicken stock. Bring to a boil, cover and lower heat to simmer. Cook until the vegetables are tender and the chicken starts to shred a little when you stir.

"Rice"
3/4 cup medium barley
4 cups water
dash salt

Cook barley according to package directions. Drain if there's water left in the barley. Add barley to soup and stir. The longer the barley sits in the soup, the less you can tell it's barley. It begins to feel like rice.

Note: Don't try to save time by throwing the barley into the soup to cook it. It will just absorb up all that lovely chicken stock!