Lentils with smoked chicken and vegetables

Lentils with smoked chicken and vegetables - a great option for a hearty lunch or dinner, bright, spicy and, of course, delicious. It's no secret that legumes, in principle, go well with smoked meats, and this is exactly the case where smoked meat and lentils perfectly emphasize each other. Lentils are very tender and soft in texture, with a rich and thick taste.

Ingredients

• Red lentils (350 gr.)
• Smoked chicken breast (small, 550 gr. pure meat)
• Onion (2 large onions)
• Carrots (3 medium)
• Garlic (1 medium head)
• Hot pepper (to taste)
• Tomato sauce (5-6 tablespoons)
• Olive oil (1.5-2 tablespoons)
• Chicken broth (optional)
• Salt (to taste)
• Pepper mix (to taste)
• Smoked or regular paprika (1.5 tablespoons)
• Curry (1.5 tablespoons)
• Dried garlic (1 tbsp.)
• Coriander (preferably freshly ground, 0.5 tbsp.)
• Nutmeg (preferably freshly grated, 0.5 tbsp.)

Directions

1. Let's prepare all the ingredients. Peel onions, carrots and garlic, wash hot peppers. Rinse the lentils thoroughly under cold water until the water stops foaming.
2. If we decide to cook with chicken broth, we will cook it in advance or, if it is frozen, defrost it. Of course, you can cook just on the water, it will still turn out delicious. In addition, smoked chicken is already present in the composition, so there is no urgent need for meat broth.
3. Adjust the amount of hot pepper to your liking. This time I came across weakly hot peppers, one of which I used whole, and its sharpness was practically not felt in the final version.
4. Remove the skin from the smoked chicken breast (I don’t use it, so I throw it away right away) and separate the meat from the skeleton. Remove seeds and membranes from hot peppers.
5. We cut the chicken meat into small cubes, carrots and onions into small cubes, finely chop the garlic and pepper.
6. The skeleton of a smoked chicken breast can be frozen and used later as an ingredient for cooking broth or soup, such as peas.
7. In a well-heated deep frying pan, greased with olive (or other vegetable) oil, add the onion and simmer it over a slightly above medium heat (on my electric stove 6 out of 9) under the lid until translucent, stirring occasionally so that the onion does not begin to fry.
8. Add the carrots to the onions and continue to simmer until the carrots are soft, stirring occasionally. If necessary, add a little bit of oil.
9. Add garlic and hot peppers, stir, reduce heat to low (on my electric stove 4 out of 9) and continue to simmer until a light, pleasant aroma of garlic.
10. Add chicken meat, tomato sauce and spices, mix thoroughly and simmer for another 5 minutes all together.
11. Add lentils, salt to taste, mix and
12. You should be careful with salt, as smoked chicken itself is salty, and for those who eat lightly or moderately salty food, the saltiness from the chicken may be enough. I add half as much salt as I would if I cooked without smoked chicken.
13. pour in the broth or water, which are best added hot to speed up the cooking process. The liquid should almost cover the contents of the pan. Reduce the heat to low (on my electric stove 3 out of 9), cover and simmer until the lentils are cooked.
14. From time to time we control the amount of liquid and, if necessary, add hot water.
15. We bring the lentils to the desired consistency: someone will like more crumbly lentils, someone more mushy. In this recipe, I prefer mushy, but not liquid, but thick enough, so that it does not spread on a plate, but keeps its shape.
16. Lentils with smoked chicken and vegetables is an excellent and tasty dish in itself, but if a portion is sprinkled a little with finely chopped fresh parsley or cilantro, it will be even more colorful, fragrant and tastier =)
17. Bon appetit!