Creamy Chicken, Bacon and Lentil Soup with Ciabatta

Creamy Chicken, Bacon and Lentil Soup with Ciabatta

Ready in 35 minutes • Serves 4-5
This dish most recently appeared in My Classic (5 Nights For 4) on Sunday, September 4, 2016.
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To make your bread extra crusty when baking it, first run it quickly under a tap long enough to just dampen the outside.

Ingredients

CREAMY CHICKEN, BACON AND LENTIL SOUP

  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 250g streaky bacon, sliced 1cm
  • 1 brown onion, finely diced
  • 1 carrot, peeled and finely diced or grated
  • 3 stalks celery, finely diced
  • 1 leek, white and pale green part only, thinly sliced
  • 400g chicken thighs
  • 1–2 tablespoons picked thyme leaves, roughly chopped
  • 1/2 cup red lentils
  • 2 cups chicken stock
  • 2 cups water
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup sour cream

SMOKY SOUR CREAM

  • 1/4 cup sour cream
  • 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika garlic spice mix

TO SERVE

  • 1 ciabatta loaf

Steps

  1. oven to 200°C. Line an oven tray with baking paper.
  2. Heat butter in a large pot on medium-high heat. Cook bacon for about 2 minutes until starting to colour. Reduce heat to medium and add onion, carrot, celery and leek. Stir, cover and cook for 4–5 minutes, stirring occasionally until vegetables are almost tender.
  3. Pat chicken dry with paper towels and season with salt. Add to pot with thyme, lentils, stock, water and salt. Increase heat to high and bring to a simmer while stirring. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer gently for about 15 minutes until chicken is just cooked through.
  4. When soup has 5 minutes cook time remaining, warm ciabatta. Place on prepared oven tray and bake for about 5 minutes until warmed through. Slice thickly.
  5. In a small bowl, mix all smoky sour cream ingredients together and set aside.
  6. Using a slotted spoon, remove chicken from soup, roughly dice and return to pot. Stir in remaining sour cream and season to taste with salt and pepper.
  7. Ladle creamy chicken, bacon and lentil soup into bowls and top with a dollop of smoky sour cream. Serve ciabatta slices on the side.

Nutritional Information

Energy 2624 kj
627 kcal
Protein 37.3g
Carbohydrate 49.0g
Fat 30.7g