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!
Prep Time 15 minutes mins
Cook Time 30 minutes mins
Course Main, Soups and Salad
Servings 4
Calories 534 kcal
Diabetic, Gluten Free, Kid Friendly
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
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.
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?