Oven Baked Chicken Barley

Our answer

Nigella's Chicken Barley (from AT MY TABLE) is a comforting cross between and soup and a stew that is cooked in one pot on the stove. We suspect that it would be possible to cook the dish in the oven instead, particularly as pearl barley is fairly robust and will not over-cook that easily.

The pot needs to be one that can go on the stove as well as in the oven and have a tightly-fitting lid, as dishes tend to dry out slightly more in the oven. It should also be big enough to hold the chicken in one layer. We would still start the dish off on the stove as you need to bring the liquid to boiling point before transferring it to the oven. Cover the pot tightly and transfer to an oven heated to 180°C/160°C Fan/350°F to cook. We estimate that the cooking time should be between 1¼ and 1½ hours, but start checking after 1 hour and add a little extra water if the Chicken Barley looks too dry. When the dish is cooked the chicken should be falling off the bone and the barley should be swollen and tender. However, we would mention that as we have not tried the Chicken Barley with this cooking method, we are unable to guarantee the results.