I’m sort of obsessed with Tasty Bite Madras Lentils.  They’re these pouches of lentils in a creamy red sauce that heat up in about a minute and make a perfect snack or, with leftover rotisserie chicken mixed in, a great lunch or dinner.  It seemed like cooking the chicken IN the lentils was a logical next step.. which led me to try to come up with my own version that I could make from scratch in my slow cooker.

I’m not actually that great at deconstructing existing recipes, but a quick Google search brought me to a couple of sites with copycat versions of the lentils.  I experimented and tweaked a bit.. and added chicken.. and this is what I came up with.

Ingredients:

4 pounds chicken breast
2 cups red lentils
10 ounces fresh spinach
1 28 ounce can diced tomatoes
1 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes
2 15 ounce cans red kidney beans
1 onion, chopped
2 tablespoons garlic/ginger paste
2 tablespoon curry powder
4 teaspoon mustard seeds
2 teaspoon ground coriander
2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons kosher salt

Instructions:

Put crushed tomatoes in bottom of crockpot, add garlic/ginger paste, spices and onions.  Then add lentils and onions.  Then chicken, spinach, and diced tomatoes.  Cook on high for 3-4 hours or on low for 6-7 hours. Shred chicken and mix back in with everything else and, voila!

For each of 10 servings:  434 calories, 2.8 grams of fat, 43.5 grams of carbs (12 grams of fiber), 53.4 grams of protein.