Chicken and barley stew

Lovely, yummy, warm your tummy, one-pot, cold-weather dinner
Serves 4
2 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp plain flour
8 chicken thigh fillets, about 650 – 700g, quartered
3 rashers streaky bacon, cut into 1cm strips
1 butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into chunks
2 tbsp roughly chopped fresh sage
2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
500ml hot chicken stock
300ml red wine
2 leeks, thickly sliced
100g pearl barley
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
large pinch crushed chilli flakes

1 Heat the oil in a large pan. Dust the chicken in the flour and cook in the hot oil along with the bacon for 3 – 4 minutes – you’ll probably need to cook the chicken in two batches, depending on the size of your pan. Add the squash, sage and garlic and cook for a further couple of minutes.

2 Pour in the hot stock and wine and add the leeks, barley, vinegar and chilli flakes. Bring to boil, cover and cook for a good hour or so until the barley is tender. Cook if for longer of you like adding more stock to make it soupy if you like it that way. Taste for salt and pepper.