Creamy chicken, bacon and lentil soup with ciabatta
Creamy chicken soup is the ultimate winter meal – this version gets a flavour boost from bacon, lentils and a dollop of sour cream. Served with crunchy warm bread, I can’t think of anything better!
Ingredients
Creamy chicken, bacon and lentil soup
- 250 g streaky bacon diced
- 1 onion diced
- 2 carrots peeled and diced or grated
- 3 celery stalks diced
- 1 leek white and pale green part only, thinly sliced
- 450 g chicken thighs boneless, skinless
- 1-2 tablespoons thyme chopped
- ½ cup split red lentils
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 2 cups water
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup sour cream
Chipotle sour cream
- ¼ cup sour cream
- 1 tablespoon chipotle sauce optional
- 1-2 tablespoons parsley
To serve
- ¼ cup parsley chopped
- ciabatta or other bread warmed or toasted sliced (omit for gluten-free, or replace with gluten-free bread)
- pinch of paprika or smoked paprika
Instructions
- Heat a drizzle of oil in a large pot on medium to high heat. Add bacon and cook for about 2 minutes. Reduce heat to medium and add onion, carrots, celery and leek. Stir, cover and cook for 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally until vegetables are just tender.
- Pat chicken dry with paper towels and season with salt. Add to pot with thyme, lentils, stock, water and salt and bring to a simmer while stirring. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer gently for 15-20 minutes until chicken is cooked and lentils are tender.
- In a small bowl mix all chipotle sour cream ingredients together.
- Using a slotted spoon, remove chicken from soup, roughly dice or shred and return to pot. Stir in sour cream and season to taste with salt and pepper.
- TO SERVE, ladle soup into bowls, add a dollop of chipotle sour cream and sprinkle with parsley and paprika. Serve with ciabatta on the side.
Notes
This is a great recipe to cook up and freeze in portions for a rainy day. If you wanted to make this creamy chicken soup dairy-free you could replace the sour cream with some coconut yoghurt or even coconut cream.
This recipe is out of the latest My Food Bag cookbook What’s For Dinner?