Nuts! Fruity Barley Salad

Chef PotPie's Note:

A little sweet, a little heat! This hearty salad makes a great summertime meal. Note: This recipe has been edited to correct my (blush) original omission of the carrot and celery! :)

• Total Time: 1 hrs 30 mins
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 1 hrs 10 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 8

• 1 cup pearl barley, well rinsed
• 2 1/2 cups chicken broth
• 1 grocer's rotisserie-cooked chicken (or 3 cans chunk chicken with dark meat, drained)
• 1/2 cup red onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup carrot, chopped
• 1/2 cup celery, chopped
• 1 cup toasted pecans, very coarse chop
• 1 medium apple, chopped
• 35 red seedless grapes, halved

DRESSING

• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 1/2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons sugar or 2 tablespoons Splenda sugar substitute
• 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
• 2 tablespoons jalapenos, canned, mashed well
• salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. Rinse barley well to avoid bitterness. Combine barley and chicken broth, bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for about 45 minutes, until barley is tender but still chewy. Let cool.
2. Meanwhile, pull the meat off the chicken, discarding skin, bones and fat, and chop, (Or drain 3 cans of chicken.) Add meat to barley in a large bowl.
3. Add red onion, carrot, celery, grapes, apple and pecans.
4. Toss with dressing and add salt and pepper to taste. Cover, chill for 1 hour or so for flavors to develop.

Reviews

[~Leslie~]

Wow, you have a winner on your hands here! I was really not too sure if this would be to my liking or not, but I have to say it was fabulous! Delicious blend of flavours, we were pleasantly surprised by this. I did take off a star, but only because it is an RSC recipe, otherwise I wouldn't have bothered, and just written to you about this personally Chef PotPie. The reason for the 4 stars was that there is nothing in the ingredient list about carrots and celery being part of the recipe ingredients, but it was in the directions. I thought I had all the ingredients until I got to step 3 LOL. Luckily I had carrots on hand, but I didn't have celery, so this was minus the celery. I assumed I was to use a raw carrot, so I chopped one medium raw carrot into the salad. Hope that was correct! I would have liked a little more dressing as well, and may just up the amounts for that the next time I make this. YES, there will be a next time, we really, really loved it! Thanks for posting a creative and delicious recipe! :)