Spicy chicken barley soup with sweet potatoes and spinach from In the Kitchen with a Good Appetite: 150 Recipes and Stories about the Food You Love (page 164) by Melissa Clark

Where’s the full recipe - why can I only see the ingredients?

Always check the publication for a full list of ingredients. An Eat Your Books index lists the main ingredients and does not include 'store-cupboard ingredients' (salt, pepper, oil, flour, etc.) - unless called for in significant quantity.

Notes about this recipe

  • Eat Your Books

    Can substitute mint for cilantro.

  • Cathyschuh on February 16, 2022

    I made this using the instant pot. I already had some onion roasted in the fridge. I bloomed the spices with the onion and better than bouillon and tomato paste, added water to make the broth then added the rest using a bag of frozen sweet potato and adding in a can of diced fire roasted tomatoes. No oil. Very healthy recipe. Instant pot 12 min and topped with cilantro (use the stems too for flavor) and spinach, cooking another couple minutes. Including prep it was on the table in 45 minutes. Excellent

  • chawkins on January 28, 2018

    This soup grew on me, it tasted better and better as I ate on. It is not spicy hot but the spices flavored the soup nicely. I agree that the cilantro did nothing to the soup even though I added more cilantro than called for, you can barely detect it visually and virtually non-existent taste wise. I used frozen pre-baked sweet potato that was harvested from the garden earlier in the summer and lime instead of lemon.

  • hillsboroks on January 18, 2017

    This is the perfect cold weather soup. I agree with Laura that it thickens up quickly so keep an eye on it as it simmers. I also started with just chicken broth and then ended up adding 1/2 cup water several times as it cooked and thickened. I added all the spices as called for and used fresh cilantro. The spice flavors are lovely but I could not detect the cilantro. With so much else going on in this soup if you don't have the mint or cilantro I don't think it will matter. My husband doesn't like too much heat so the spicing was perfect for us. I plan to freeze half of it for later dinners.

  • Melanie on July 22, 2016

    This was delicious and lasted well. Interesting mix of flavours and textures, thick and filling.

  • Laura on November 21, 2013

    Pg. 164. This made a delicious soup both on the day it was made and for leftovers for a couple of days afterward. The density, however, was more like a stew, despite the addition of 2 additional cups of liquid. I followed the directions exactly with the small difference that I used only chicken broth instead of part broth/part water. I also didn't have ground coriander, so skipped that. The spice flavors were really nice and added a lot of interest to the taste. It wasn't especially spicy, though, so if more heat is desired, it would be a good idea to increase the chili powder and cayenne

  • we10mom on October 23, 2013

    I've made this soup twice in two weeks, once with mint and once with cilantro. Love it both ways. I used rotisserie chicken and, because I'm not crazy about cooked spinach, I substituted lacinato kale. This will definitely be one of my go-to soup recipes.

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