Improvised Minestrone

I had one chicken back and one chicken leg in the freezer, plus a fortunate assortment of aromatics, so I decided to make a freestyle minestrone.

I have my mom's recipe in a previous post, but I only had a select array of ingredients. Here's what I used:

1 chicken back, 1 chicken leg, both cut in largish pieces
1 yellow onion, large dice
2 carrots, large dice
2 ribs celery, large dice

1/2 cup red wine
1/2 cup pearl barley
1 can (15 oz) kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can (28 oz) tomatoes
about 1 cup chicken stock

squeeze of lemon
1 large clove garlic, minced fine
1 handful of parsley, minced

I defrosted the chicken in the microwave, cut it up with my poultry shears, and seasoned with salt and pepper. In the bottom of my pressure cooker, I browned the chicken pieces in olive oil. When they were done, I removed them to a plate and poured off a little of the oil before browning the onions, etc.

I sweated the onions, carrots, and celery for a few minutes, then deglazed with the wine. Now, I added everything back in (chicken, kidney beans, tomatoes, barley). I added all the tomato juice, and then topped off with the stock, making sure to only add liquid to the point I'd want the final product to come out to - the pressure cooker would cook everything in much less time, losing much less liquid. I put on the top, brought up to pressure, and then simmered for about 18 minutes.

I released the pressure and let the soup cool a bit before serving. Right before ladling it out, I added a squeeze of lemon, the parsley, and the garlic. Note I added the garlic raw at the end, rather than with the onions. I wanted it to be spicy and hot, to help add freshness/brightness to the final dish. First time I'd tried that. Worked great.