Creamy Chicken, Bacon and Lentil Soup with Ciabatta

Creamy Chicken, Bacon and Lentil Soup with Ciabatta

Ready in 35 minutes • Serves 2-3
This dish most recently appeared in My Classic (4 Nights For 2) 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

  • 2 teaspoons butter
  • 100g minced smoked bacon
  • 1/2 brown onion, finely diced
  • 1 carrot, peeled and finely diced or grated
  • 2 stalks celery, finely diced
  • 1/2 leek, white and pale green part only, thinly sliced
  • 200g chicken thighs
  • 1 tablespoon picked thyme leaves, roughly chopped c
  • 1/4 cup red lentils
  • 1 cup chicken stock
  • 1 1/2 cups water
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons sour cream

SMOKY SOUR CREAM

  • 1 1/2 tablespoons sour cream
  • Pinch of smoked paprika

TO SERVE

  • 1 ciabatta loaf

Steps

  1. oven to 200°C. Line an oven tray with baking paper
  2. Heat butter in a pot (with a lid) on medium-high heat. Cook bacon for 1–2 minutes until starting to colour, breaking up with a wooden spoon as it cooks. Reduce heat to medium then add onion, carrot, celery and leek. Stir then cook, covered, for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally until vegetables are almost tender.
  3. While veggies are cooking, 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 about 15 minutes until chicken is just cooked.
  4. When soup has 5 minutes cook time remaining, warm ciabatta. Place ciabatta 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 until smooth.
  6. Using a slotted spoon, remove chicken from soup, roughly dice then return to pot. Hold chicken with tongs as chicken will be hot. Stir through 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 2298 kj
549 kcal
Protein 32.2g
Carbohydrate 44.7g
Fat 26.2g