Healthy Recipe: Chicken and vegetable broth

This week we have a mighty meal recipe that’s sure to keep your taste buds happy while also being good for you. How does that sound?

Have you even been stuck for a recipe to make yourself, or the whole family, that will keep you satisfied without having to sacrifice any of the taste?  Well we’ve finally found the perfect dish for you. Here’s how to make a healthy and tasty chicken and vegetable broth.

Chicken and vegetable broth

The Basics:

7 ProPoints values per serving (28 ProPoints values per recipe)
Takes 10 minutes to prepare, 60 minutes to cook
Serves 4

What you need:

Calorie controlled cooking spray
1 large onion, sliced finely
2 large carrots, peeled and cut into 1cm(1/2 inch) slices
2 celery sticks, sliced
250g swede, peeled and cut into chunks
65g dried pearl barely
500g chicken thighs, skinless but on the bone
1.5 litres hot chicken or vegetable stock
350g mushroom, sliced thickly
1 teaspoon dried sage or 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh sage
2 tablespoons corn flour
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley, to serve

What to do:

1) To kick things off, spray a large, lidded, non-stick frying pan with your low-fat cooking spray. Add in the onion, carrots, celery and swede (which is basically a turnip – we think) and stir fry for 5 minutes until slightly softened. Add the pearl barley and chicken thighs and stir-fry for 3-4 minutes, or until the chicken is lightly browned.

2) Add the stock to your mixture and bring to the boil. Once it’s boiling you can lower the heat, cover and simmer gently for 35-40 minutes. During this time the barley will swell and soften, absorbing some of the stock.

3) Use a tongs to remove the cooked chicken and place it on a chopping board. Add the mushrooms and sage to the saucepan and continue to simmer while uncovered for around 10 minutes. Meanwhile, you can remove the chicken from the bones and roughly shred up the meat. Return this meat to the saucepan and season well to taste.

4) Blend the corn flour to a paste with the Worcestershire sauce and then add a drop of cold water. Stir into the broth and continue to heat through until the broth thickens slightly. Now it’s time to check the seasoning.

5) Ladle into warmed bowls, scatter over the parsley and serve immediately.

Here is a little Weight Watcher tip, which you might like to try…

Dark-gilled open mushrooms will add more flavour and depth to this broth than button mushrooms, so look out for those instead.

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