Things I have been cooking lately #79: Pan-fried chicken with creamy porcini lentils

Recently Mr O and I did a free trial of something called Hello Fresh. Basically it’s like a dinner graze box that you cook yourself. They deliver all the fresh ingredients for three meals up to once per week along with recipe cards and then you make what they’ve sent you and since it’s exact quantities (for the most part) there’s no wastage. It’s a little pricy for us but if you have the cash and you don’t like thinking about meal planning it’s ideal. If any UK based friends want to try it out you can get £20 off your first box by using this code: R7N2X9. I didn’t love all three recipes that came in our box but this chicken one was definitely a winner. In the end it was Mr O who did most of the cooking on this one, not me but it was so good I still wanted to share it with all of you.

Pan-friend chicken with creamy porcini lentils

Adapted from HelloFresh

2 skinless, boneless chicken breast fillets
1 tin green lentils
3 sprigs fresh thyme3 tablespoons creme fraiche
1 stick of celery
1 medium carrot
1 leek
1 tablespoon dried porcini mushrooms
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil

Soak the porcini mushrooms in half a cup of warm water. Trim the ends off the carrot and the celery. Peel the carrot and then dice both into tiny cubes. Cut the leafy top and the base off the leek and slice it into 1/2cm sections.

Strip the leaves off the thyme sprigs.

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a medium saucepan over a medium heat. Add the carrot, celery, leak and thyme leaves to the saucepan. Add a good sprinkle of salt and cook gently until soft (about 8 minutes).

Place the chicken breasts between two sheets of clingfilm and use something heavy like a rolling pin to bash them until they are  less tat 1cm thick all over.

Remove the porcini mushrooms from the water but do not throw the water way. Chop the porcini very fine and add them to the vegetables.

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a non-stick pan on a medium-high heat. Once hot add the chicken and cook for about 4 minutes on each side until cooked through. Season with salt and pepper on both sides while cooking.

Thoroughly drain and rinse the lentils. Add them to the vegetable pan with 3 tablespoons of porcini water and the creme fraiche. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Spoon the mixture onto two plates, top with the chicken and serve.

Serves 2