Southwestern Chicken & Barley Soup - cooking recipe

Ingredients

1 medium yellow onion, diced
2 stalks celery, sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 green pepper, diced
1 tablespoon olive oil
7 cups water
2 low-sodium chicken bouillon cubes
2 chicken breast halves, skin removed
1 1/2 cups canned diced tomatoes
1 ear of corn
1 (14 ounce) can black beans
2 ancho chilies
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 cup barley
1 medium yellow zucchini or 1 medium green zucchini, cut in to medium cubes

Preparation

Saute onion, garlic, celery and green pepper in olive oil in soup pot.
Once onions are soft (about 5 minutes) add water, bouillon, tomatoes, black beans and chicken to pot and bring to a low simmer.
(Use chicken broth instead of water and bouillon if you prefer).
Remove corn kernels from cob and add to soup.
Add whole ancho chilies to pot for a minute, just to get the dried chili to soften a bit.
Remove from pot.
Tear off stalk and remove seeds.
Dice chilies into small pieces and return to simmering pot.
Let soup simmer 20 minutes and remove chicken from pot.
Shred or dice chicken and return to pot.
Add barley and let soup simmer for 25 minutes.
Add zucchini and let simmer an additional 25 minutes.