Sunday 22 January 2012

Chicken and lentil soup

Here's an easy, economical and healthy way to use up some leftover chicken...



The night before last we had roast chicken for dinner. A whole chicken is more than enough for two people so there was some left over. I divided it into two categories "nice meat", and "anything else".  I put the "anything else" pile into a large saucepan with an onion, a carrot, a bay leaf, two cloves and about six black peppercorns, added about one and a half litres of water, brought it to the boil and then simmered it for about 2 hours - Hey Presto: stock. I should add that the leftover gravy went into the stock too.

The "nice meat" got used in two ways: firstly I made some of it into "Chow Fan", with rice and a beaten egg; and the rest of it went into my chicken and lentil soup - which is really what I want to write about today.

The ingredients for my soup were very simple: chicken meat, an onion, a couple of cloves of garlic, about 75g red lentils, a chilli (from the freezer), and a tub of the home-made stock (about 500ml). Oh, and a tiny quantity of vegetable oil for frying the onion.





This is how to make my soup:

  • Fry the peeled and finely-chopped onion gently in a little oil, until translucent
  • Add the peeled and crushed garlic and cook for about two minutes
  • Add the stock (and a little extra water if you feel it's necessary). My stock was very concentrated and I felt that it needed thinning down a bit
  • Add the lentils
  • Add the chilli - de-seeded and cut into big pieces
  • Cook over a low heat until the lentils are fully cooked (they will fall apart) - approx 30 - 35 minutes
  • Remove and discard the pieces of chilli
  • Season to taste (do not add salt earlier in the proceedings, because this inhibits the softening of the lentils)
  • Add the diced chicken meat and heat gently for a few minutes
  • Serve (perhaps garnished with a slice of chilli just for the look of it?)

The end result will look something like this:-


Rich, dark, flavoursome, warming. In my opinion the perfect lunch-time meal for a cold Winter's day!

12 comments:

  1. Looks very warming and very tasty! One to think about for next time we have a whole chicken, I do like to get at least 4 meals out of a chicken and always have to make stock from the remains. I can't believe some people actually buy a chicken, eat the breast meat and throw the remainder away!!

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  2. Thanks for the recipe I was given a 10kg bag of lentils makes a lot of soup.

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  3. Talk about comfort food! YUM

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  4. That looks delicious. I'd probably use beans instead of lentils since I have so many from the garden. I never grow lentils. I've thought about it, but It seems like beans are so much easier to dehusk than lentils would be.

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  5. Another delicious meal, perfect for a winter day.

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  6. Soup looks really good and bet the chili gave it a nice kick. By the way, your sowing seeds indoor article was really good!

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  7. Sounds wonderful! You have inspired me to make some chicken and lentil soup today!

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  8. Very nicely done. I think the soup looks great. I had some leftover turkey breasts that I had cooked earlier in the week. I sliced them with my meat slicer put the slices in a pan of roasted turkey gravy and simmered it a little bit and we ate turkey slices in gravy for lunch. It was pretty good too.

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  9. Looks devine Mark!! Now off to read your indoor seed sowing post. Cheers, Jenni

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  10. Ahhhh food for the soul. I always make stock with my roast chicken bones too.

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  11. L love a good lentil soup - never had it with chicken though - might try it tomorrow with the left over chicken from Sunday lunch.

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