Baby Food: Chicken and barley

Making baby food is surprisingly easy. A few weeks ago I threw together this chicken and barley mash using a leftover precooked rotisserie chicken from the grocery store plus a few other simple ingredients.

What's great about this is you can use it as a base for any of your baby's meals. I usually defrost 1 of the chicken cubes and mix with a pureed veg. You can use pretty much anything...carrot, sweet potato, green bean, peas, squash. It makes a complete meal your baby will love!

Ingredients:

Leftover rotisserie chicken (bones and all)

1 cup dried barley (in your supermarket rice section)

1 container of Trader Joe's MirePoix (pre-diced celery, carrot,onions)

Low sodium chicken broth (at least 2 -4 cans depending on how thick you want end result to be)

Mini Food processor

2 ice cube trays

1. Sautee celery, carrot & onion until soft. I didn't use any oil but you can if you would like.

2. Add rotisserie chicken and pour in broth until it almost covers chicken. Bring to a slight boil.

3. Add barley and stir. Turn down heat to medium and cook until barley is very soft. About 30-40 min. You can add more broth if it becomes to thick. Don't make it to runny though, otherwise it will be watery when you puree.

4. Now that barley is soft you can pull out all the chicken bones and pick off the meat. It should fall right off.

5. Place small portions into mini food processor. Puree until desired consistency. I left it a bit chunky. You may need to add a bit of broth or water if the mixture is to thick.

6. Spoon pureed mixture into ice cube trays. Wrap with plastic and freeze. Once frozen you can transfer the cubes to a ziploc bag.

When its time to eat simply pop 1-2 cubes in microwave for 30 seconds. Stir then add a pureed veg and heat for another 15 seconds.

Next up...the best mini food processor and more baby food recipes!