Braised chicken with mushrooms & lentils
- Prep: 10m
- Cook: 6hr 15m
- Serves: 4
Chicken and lentils is a classic European dish, and it's been given a twist here by adding fresh ginger, a drizzle of honey and a spoonful of brown rice miso for some extra warmth and delicious umami magic. Cook it low and slow for a meltingly tender meal.
Method
- Warm a large frying pan over a medium-high heat for 2 mins, then add 1 tbsp oil, the chicken thighs (skin-side down) and drumsticks. Fry for 10 mins, turning once, to brown the chicken on both sides. When the thighs and drumsticks are a nice golden brown, they are ready. If your frying pan is a little too small to fry everything at the same time, fry them in batches, using ½ tbsp oil for each batch.
- While the chicken fries, peel and finely chop the onions. Thickly slice the mushrooms. From this point, either follow the method for either the slow cooker or the oven.
- Heat the oven to 180C/Fan 160C/Gas 4. Lift the chicken out of the frying pan and pop it into an ovenproof dish or casserole dish (you can fry the chicken in the casserole dish if its hobproof too).
- 1Add the onions and mushrooms to the pan with 2 tbsp water. Keep the heat to medium-low and fry for 8-10 mins till the onions have softened and the mushrooms are juicy. Add them to the chicken (or return the chicken to the pan if you’re frying in a casserole dish).
- While the veg cook, drain the lentils. Peel and crush the garlic. Peel and grate the ginger. Put them both in a heatproof jug. Add 1 level tbsp miso (keep any extra for later) and pour in the honey. Stir in 600ml boiling water.
- Add the drained lentils and the miso mix to the chicken and veg.
- Pop a lid on the dish, or cover it with foil and scrunch it to seal the foil to the sides Slide into the oven and cook for 1½ hrs.
- When the braise has 30 mins cooking time left, follow the instructions to cook the rice (overleaf). Taste the braise and add a little more miso if you think it needs it. Add the spinach to the braise and fork it in to wilt it. Serve the cooked rice with the chicken, lentils, veg and juices from the dish.
Ingredients
All to be sourced organic where possible
- 4 chicken thighs & 4 chicken drumsticks
- 2 onions
- 400g souping mushrooms
- 400g tin of green lentils
- 3 garlic cloves
- A thumb of ginger
- 1 level tbsp brown rice miso
- 1 tbsp honey
- 300g white basmati rice
- 50g baby leaf spinach
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 600ml boiling water
- 2 tbsp water (optional)