It’s been raining a lot this week and the yesterday I was in the mood for a hearty lentil soup made with chicken. While flipping through Madhur Jaffrey’s Indian Cooking
Madhur Jaffrey is an award-winning Indian-American actress and bestselling cookery author, and she is widely viewed as a premier popularizer of Indian cooking in the US. She is having dozens of cookbooks published and her own cooking shows in the U.S. and UK.
I have two of her cookbooks – Quick & Easy Indian Cooking
Here’s the recipe for Bombay-style chicken with red split lentils I made yesterday. More, for this stew recipe you can replace chicken with potatoes, shelled peas or green beans and create a vegetarian version.
The picture of my final stew is not great, it was really dark outside so I used artificial light and well, no food looks great under artificial lighting or phone flash. But trust me, it was a delicious chicken lentils stew.
Step by step Chicken with red lentils recipe – Murghi aur masoor dal
In a deep pan put the lentils, onions, green chilli, ground cumin, turmeric powder, 1/2 tsp ginger and water. Bring to boil then lower the heat, cover the pan with a lid and simmer for 40 minutes.
Add the chicken pieces and salt. Mix and simmer covered for 30 minutes or until the chicken is tender.
Heat oil in a small frying pan, on medium heat. Put cumin seeds and when they start to sizzle add dried red chilli, ginger and garlic. Fry until garlic gets brown in color. Add cayenne pepper and red chilli powder. Turn off the heat and pour this oil and spices into the pan with chicken and lentils.
Add lemon juice and garam masala. Mix gently and cook on low heat for 5 minutes.
Garnish with fresh cilantro/coriander leaves and serve warm with plain boiled rice or bread.
- 100 g red split lentils, washed and drained;
- 1 onion, chopped;
- 1 green chilli, chopped;
- 1 tsp ground cumin;
- 1/4 tsp turmeric powder;
- 1 tsp ginger paste/finely chopped;
- 700 ml water;
- 700 g chicken pieces, skinned;
- 1 tsp salt or as per taste;
- 1 tsp cumin seeds;
- 3 garlic cloves, finelly chopped;
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper;
- 1/4 tsp red chilli powder;
- 2 tbsp lemon/lime juice;
- 1 tsp garam masala;
- 1 dried red chilli (optional);
- few coriander/cilantro leaves to garnish;
- vegetable oil.
- In a deep pan put the lentils, onions, green chilli, ground cumin, turmeric powder, 1/2 tsp ginger and water. Bring to boil then lower the heat, cover the pan with a lid and simmer for 40 minutes.
- Add the chicken pieces and salt. Mix and simmer covered for 30 minutes or until the chicken is tender.
- Heat oil in n a small frying pan, on medium heat. Put cumin seeds and when they start to sizzle add dried red chilli, ginger and garlic. Fry until garlic gets brown in color. Add cayenne pepper and red chilli powder. Turn off the heat and pour this oil and spices into the pan with chicken and lentils.
- Add lemon juice and garam masala. Mix gently and cook on low heat for 5 minutes.
- Garnish with fresh cilantro/coriander leaves and serve warm with plain boiled rice or bread.
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