Fridge (and pantry) raid: Chicken Lentil Soup

Chicken, lentils and things you probably already have on hand turn into a quick, hearty, healthy soup. Recipe below.

Chicken Lentil Soup

So, we’re moving. Not to another city or anything, and we’ve certainly moved plenty of times in our lives. But what has turned this into a huge monster of a time- and life-consuming project is that we’re moving into a house that needed everything when we found it. Plumbing. Electric. HVAC. Walls built, moved or removed. And most important, perhaps, work to make sure the house will continue to stand as it has since probably the 1880s.

The roller coaster ride has not come to a complete stop yet and won’t for a while. But it’s finally being a little less, um, fraught.  We will be sharing more details in future posts. For now, let us just say life is being one long sleep deprivation experiment.

All that said, one can only eat so many takeout meals; we’re still occasionally cooking. On Saturday, Chicago got a belated April Fools Day joke—not just snow, but snow blowing sideways. At the end of a particularly busy day, we wanted something hearty, comforting and quickish to cook. Bonus points if it was healthyish and used stuff currently in the fridge and pantry. This chicken lentil soup pushed all the buttons. It’s not a life-changing recipe, but it’s one that fills you up and wraps its arms around you, telling you everything will be okay. And sometimes, that’s exactly what you need.

Chicken Lentil Soup
6 generous servings

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, sliced
3 carrots, sliced
2 ribs celery, including leaves, sliced
salt and freshly ground pepper
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 generous teaspoon dried herbes de Provence
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized chunks
4 cups chicken stock or store-bought reduced-sodium broth
4 cups water (plus more, if needed)
1 pound dried lentils
2 bay leaves

In a large stock pot or Dutch oven, heat oil over a medium flame. Add onion and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add carrots and celery, season with salt and pepper, and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add garlic and herbes de Provence and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 45 seconds.

Add chicken. Now you want to stir it until everything is all mixed together. Then let it cook, stirring occasionally. You don’t want to brown the chicken, but you want all of the pinkness to turn to white—5 to 8 minutes should do it. As a bonus, the chicken will pick up the flavors of the herbs and the aromatics.

Add the water, broth, lentils and bay leaves. Stir and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce heat and simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, until lentils are tender, about 30 minutes. (Wow, what a lot of commas.) Add water, if needed—I didn’t need to. Adjust seasonings and serve.

6 thoughts on “Fridge (and pantry) raid: Chicken Lentil Soup

  1. Congrats on the move! Very exciting news! A lot of work, sure, but it’ll be worth it. We’ll all need to see pictures of your new kitchen. 🙂 Anyway, love lentils for quick meals — one of our old reliables. In fact as I was brushing my teeth this morning and wondering what the heck we were going to have for dinner, lentil soup passed through my mind. Still may do it. 🙂 Nice recipe — thanks.

  2. Love me some lentils! I like the use of chicken thighs in this rendition–looks delicious.

    More importantly, congratulations on the new home! How exciting to own a piece of history!

  3. Pantry raids can get you in trouble, Terry. But glad this time it got you some rib-sticking lentil soup. I often put leftover chicken in leftover lentil soup. Novel idea (well, for me) to use the chicken and lentils together in the original recipe. Your new home will be so glad to have you. Best of luck!

  4. Thanks, everyone! We are so not ready for the move, but it’s happening, ready or not. Christina, the house is in a wonderfully historic working class neighborhood that was a gateway to generations of immigrants. Looking forward to living there—and to sharing stories here.

  5. When you kept writing about being “crazy busy” I suspected you were involved in a house restoration. The post with refurbished Victorian door hardware made me certain. That you would undertake such an adventure is astonishing! You already had restored two lovely old houses in Saint Louis. So you certainly knew what was in store. Good Luck!

  6. Thanks, Helmut. Having restored other houses made us think we knew what we were in store for. This was on a whole other level.

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