Today, two Quick & Easy dishes. This one & my Blackberry Cobbler

This is Thanksgiving week and a lot of us need quick and easy, how about you?

Recently, I have had a lot of people ask me if I ever get tired of cooking. My automatic answer of course is no. And to be honest, no, I don't get tired, however I do from time to time have an easy meal day and that was the inspiration behind this dish.

One pot meals are often my saving grace. Also, my house loves left overs. We're not breakfast food people when it comes to breakfast. We love breakfast food, but would rather eat biscuits and gravy with eggs for dinner rather than breakfast. How about your family?

Have you ever wanted to throw a bunch of random stuff into a pot, turn the oven on and hope for the best? I have. If that speaks to you, then maybe this is for you. It's a little more difficult than just random ingredient pot throwing, but now much. Whatever meat you choose, make sure it's roughly 75% cooked and while that is cooking, get the barley going. And during both of those, you can prep veggies.

ALL CONTENT IS MINE AND ORIGINAL! All of these food photos were taken with my Nikon D5300 and my favorite Lens, the Nikon AF-S FX NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8G. Most every time, I cross post on my personal blog which you can find in my INTRO POST.

Another big inspiration for this dish is the fact that this is Thanksgiving week, and we need quick and easy. As @richman mentioned in his earlier post, all of you in the States and Canada will be celebrating Thanksgiving this week. If you want an amazing idea for turkey, check out his post, Thanksgiving Is Coming: A Delicious And Healthy Oven Roasted Turkey Thigh.

RECIPE

Ingredients

8 medium skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 1/2 cups uncooked pearl barley
4 large carrots, sliced
1 large head of broccoli, cut into florets
2 medium onions, chopped
1/2 head garlic, peeled and minced
2 teaspoons sea salt, plus more to taste
1 teaspoon cracked black pepper
4 - 5 fresh thyme branches

Instructions

A. Place a large dutch oven or oven-proof pot with a lid over medium-high heat and add oil. Lay as many thigh pieces as will fit in the bottom of pot and cook on each side until lightly braised, about 2 minutes per side. Remove to a foil lined tray and cook remaining pieces then remove.
B. Now fill pot with a few inches of water and bring to a boil and preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 C). Add barley to pot, cover, and cook for about 15 minutes until partially cooked. (this is a good time to chop and prep your veggies).
C. Add remaining ingredients to pot with barley and stir together until well mixed. Scoot the contents of pot to the side as much as possible and lay half of the thighs in pot. Now scoop everything over place remaining pieces on top and surround with barley/veggies (the idea is to get chicken as evenly spaced as you can.
D. Fill pot with enough water to cover everything most of the way, cover with lid, and place in the oven to roast for 45 minutes to 1 hour until the liquid is absorbed.