Tomato Lentil Chicken Stew
Instant soup mix, red lentils, and a pouch of chicken. Thickens itself while you set up camp.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 5.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 113
- protein
- 40 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 2 min
- cook
- 15 min
- total time
- 17 min
- water
- 600 ml boiled
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Campfire coals
- Backpacking
- Car camping
- Bikepacking
- Basecamp
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Dried tomato vegetable soup mix | 1 packet (about 2 oz) | minestrone style if you can find it |
|---|---|---|
| Red lentils | 1/2 cup | split, not whole; whole ones stay hard |
| Chicken stock cube | 1 | |
| Foil-pouch chicken | 5 oz | |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | |
| Chili flakes | a pinch | optional |
| Pilot crackers or a bagel | to serve | optional |
Method
- Bring 600 ml of water to a boil. Add the soup mix, lentils, crumbled stock cube, and chili.
- Drop to a low simmer. Stir every couple of minutes so the lentils do not weld to the bottom.
- After about 12 minutes the lentils should be soft and the pot should look like stew, not soup. Add a splash of water if it tightens too far.
- Kill the heat. Stir in the chicken with its pouch liquid and the oil.
- Let it sit two minutes with the lid on. Eat with crackers if you brought them.
The original version pan-seared a fresh chicken breast and poured a can of soup over it. Neither travels. Dried soup mix does the same job at a fraction of the weight, and a foil pouch of chicken carries the protein without a cooler.
The lentils are the reason to simmer at all. They break down into the broth and give it body, so you end up with a stew that coats the spoon instead of thin soup that runs off it. They also add most of the fiber here. Keep the heat low and stir, or the lentils scorch and the whole pot tastes burnt.
Packing
Soup mix, lentils, crumbled stock cube, and chili go in one bag at home. The chicken pouch and oil bottle ride separately.
Variations
- Swap the lentils for instant refried bean flakes and cut the simmer to five minutes.
- A curry-flavored soup base turns this into something else entirely with no other changes.
- Sliced hard salami in place of the chicken pouch, added at the end.
https://www.advrider.com/chicken-vegetable-tomato-stew