Chicken Lentil Stew
A hearty lentil stew with braised chicken thighs, mushrooms and chicken sausage. Delicious with a red wine blend from the Rhone Valley.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 50 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 5 servings 1x
- Category: main
- Method: stove top
- Cuisine: French
Ingredients
Scale
- 1 chicken sausage
- 1 lb boneless chicken thighs (about 5 small / medium thighs)
- pinch salt
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
- 5 crimini or button mushrooms, chopped
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder or 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 1/2 tsp dried rosemary
- 1 sage leaf or 1/2 tsp dried sage
- 1/4 cup red wine
- 1 cup green lentils — rinsed
- 2 1/2 cups low sodium chicken broth
- 1 tbsp minced parsley
- cooked brown rice or farro grain for serving (optional)
Instructions
- Brown the chicken: Coat a Dutch oven or similar style pan with oil spray. Heat on medium, and add the sausage. Turn occasionally to brown the sausage, which will take about 5 minutes. Remove to a platter, and add the chicken thighs. Sprinkle the chicken with a pinch of salt, and brown on one side for 2 to 3 minutes. Turn over and brown on the other side for 2 minutes. Move to a platter.
- Sauté the vegetables: Add the olive oil to the same pan used for browning the chicken. Heat on medium low, and add the onions. Cook for about 3 minutes, then add the carrots. Sauté for another 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the mushroom, garlic, thyme, rosemary and sage. Cook for a minute or two then add the wine. Simmer for about 3 minutes.
- Braise the chicken and lentils: Add the chicken back into the pan with the vegetables along with the lentils and broth. Bring to a simmer, then cover. Simmer for 15 minutes. Slice the browned sausage, and stir it into the pan. Cover, and simmer for another 15 minutes.
- Finish the stew and serve: After 30 minutes of total simmer time, remove the cover and stir the stew. If you want the dish to be a bit thicker, simmer uncovered for an additional 5 minutes. Ladle the stew into bowls along with the rice or farro, if using, and sprinkle a bit of fresh parsley over the stew. Enjoy with some crusty French bread and Rhone red wine. Bon appétit!
Notes
- The sausage isn’t essential for the dish — you could omit if you want. We were trying to add a bit of extra flavor and stretch out the stew for our desired number of servings. It does add some nice additional flavor though!
- Fresh herbs are certainly nice to use if you have them available. When I want to use a blend of several herbs, I’ll often try to get one fresh and plan an additional use for it that week. Of course, you have an herb garden you can just snip what you need!
- I mention using a Dutch oven or similar pan. I like to use our Copper Chef Pan
for dishes like this, as it cooks things very evenly and is easy to clean (Amazon affiliate link included there in case you are interested in one).
Find it online: https://cookingchatfood.com/chicken-lentil-stew/
