Crockpot Thursday – Lentil and Chicken Chili

It’s Thursday….. !!! Time for Crock Pot Day… we soo needed our Crock pot this week, with all the different soccer games we had and still have ahead of us.. this is a life saver… 🙂

Today’s meal Lentil & Chicken Chili sounded interesting in the cookbook and I love lentils, but never cooked with them, other than opening a progresso Lentil soup … that’s as far as I got.

So this week I found this super easy recipe and to my surprise Lentils were soo easy to cook.. litterly fix it and forget it…. no soaking no cleaning nothing toss in and walk away!!!!

This dish can also be adapted for “meatless” dinner.. just leave the chicken out and use vegetable stock…

Here is what you need:

• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 gloves garlic, minced
• 2 carrots, sliced ( I used baby carrots, whole like a hand or two full)
• 1 tablespoon chili powder ( I also added some paprika powder)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt ( I left that out..)
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 1/2 cups dried lentils
• 1/2 cup brown rice ( I used white)
• 1/2 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cubed ( I left mine whole and then shredded at the end… easier)
• 1- 6 ounce can tomato paste
• 3 cups chicken stock  ( I used 2 cans, should have used 3!!)
• 2 cups water

How to make it:

Add everything to the crock pot, Onions, carrots and lentils then the liquid and Tomato paste and chicken and spices… close lid and walk away…. 🙂

Cook on low for 7-9 hours or until lentils and rice are tender…. Serve with Sour Cream and Salsa, if desired.

Tip:  Add more liquid, I had 2 cans of broth and 2 cups water and when hubby got home from work at 3 pm, so after 8 hrs of cooking it was “dry”, it would have been burned by the time I got home at 5pm… so add extra water at least another cup or two if your crockpot will hold it… other then that it was very good… almost tasted like Lentil soup, but I’m sure that’s because of the lentil taste..lol.. I really liked it….