Braised Chicken and Lentils

This recipe is from Cook’s Country (subscription needed for link). If your library carries the physical copies, it is from the February/March 2023 issue.

I made this braised chicken with lentils for dinner last weekend. For once, I successfully browned/crisped the chicken skin without losing the skin. The lentils were very flavorful. I cannot say that a lot of that got into the chicken. So I just had to make sure every chicken bite included lentils.

I made the seasoning mixture for the chicken first – salt, smoked paprika, and black pepper.

I rubbed the mixture on both sides of the chicken thighs.

I heated oil in my Dutch oven and cooked the chicken thighs in batches. This step was just to crisp up the chicken skin. The chicken gets fully cooked during the braising step in the oven. I put the finished pieces on plates to set aside.

I added tomatoes, carrot, salt, and black pepper to the same Dutch oven.

And continued to cook until the tomatoes and carrots softened.

Next I added the garlic, tomato paste, thyme, and crushed red pepper flakes.

Then I added the chicken broth.

I had rinsed my lentils. The recipe said green lentils, but my experience in the grocery store is that red lentils are labeled as red lentils and the other lentils are just labeled as lentils. I think there are supposed. to be green and brown, but those labels do not show up. So maybe these are green?

I added them to the pot along with some additional smoked paprika.

I put the chicken pieces back into the pot and put the pot in the oven at 375˚F for 40 minutes.

I got the pot back out of the oven, removed the chicken pieces, added the sherry vinegar and onion powder and cooked the sauce until it was creamier.

I served each chicken thigh with a serving of the lentil sauce.