1: Baby, we got a stew goin'
soup: chicken, bacon and lentil stew. also way too much discussion about pork roll. also, why am i even writing this thing?
So anyway, here’s this. I’ve been playing around with starting a newsletter since mid-pandemic (roughly right between the dalgona coffee trend morphing into the feta pasta trend). But I could never get it together because I used to work for a political newspaper, and 2020 (and 2021 lol) was a tough year for people who worked in politics. Maybe you don’t know that. Maybe you think that political journalists are gleeful and happy that you are actually reading their work. Well, we are. But that’s beside the point.
Now I work for the internet, which is excellent for me because in my life, the internet has only brought me good things like earrings shaped like the Stay-Puft Man and a first pressing of the Liz Phair “Exile in Guyville” LP. But it’s also excellent because my stress and depression level (or as I hilariously called it, “destression level” which to be honest, my therapist did not find quite as funny as I did) went from a solid 9.5/10 to a more steady and manageable 6/10, which has enabled me to do real life human things like make actual food instead of open my front door like a bewildered goblin to whatever the Doordash driver left on my porch, or knit scarves to keep the necks of my friends warm, or play a video game other than my 643rd hour of Stardew Valley, or uh, write this newsletter.
And now we are basically bosom friends and you’re all caught up, so I guess let’s make this week’s soup.
It’s officially fall where I live and despite Brandi Carlile releasing a new album that is the perfect cozy autumn night soundtrack, none of the trees are changing, the weather is still warm and humid, and there is nary a carved pumpkin on the porches of my street.
This is some bullshit. It is OCTOBER in the mid-Atlantic region. I should be knee-deep in butternut squash everything. I should be wearing a rugged fisherman’s sweater. I should be eating apple cider donuts until I myself turn into a donut. I should not be wearing a sleeveless shirt and eating saltine crackers smeared with cream cheese.
Anyway, this past weekend, I celebrated my friend Gary’s birthday. We were supposed to go to the Renaissance Festival to stuff our faces with turkey legs and talk about how the medieval era was a great opportunity for people who like boobs, but unfortunately, the festival was sold out. We pivoted to a little day trip to Frederick, Md. on yet another too-warm autumn day. I took him to lunch at White Rabbit and we split one of the best pizzas I’ve ever eaten: picture a Detroit-style pizza, all crispy cheesy, topped with a thick slice of pork roll, an over-easy egg and hollandaise sauce. It was just on the verge of being too much, but somehow did not tip over. Obviously, I have now dedicated myself to the fine art of procuring Wisconsin-style brick cheese so I can make my own pork roll pizza.
(If you don’t know what pork roll is, boy, I don’t know what to tell ya. It is both terrible but delicious all at the same time.)
Anyway, because my weekend was too busy to make soup, I decided to make this stew because I had a bunch of scheduled meetings and I knew I wouldn’t have time to go in and stir something. This recipe is great for those kind of days because you basically just throw everything in an Instant Pot and press a button and like 30 minutes later, you have a massive amount of food. It’s like the Star Trek replicator but less tea is involved.
This stew is pretty good, can be made dairy-free if you swap the butter for another oil, and gives me rustic vibes like you could order it at a roadside inn in the French countryside from a waiter named Pierre, s’il vous plait. Oui oui.
Chicken, Bacon and Lentil Stew
Adapted from this Serious Eats recipe. I like this because I can make it in the Instant Pot and it takes like 45 minutes for everything (and only like 10 minutes of me having to do anything). You can also throw all of this stuff in a slow cooker or dutch oven and just let it go until the lentils and chicken are done (you may need to add a little more liquid halfway through) if you don’t have an Instant Pot or if you are like my friend Cathi and have one but are too scared to use it.
Gluten-free | (can be made) Dairy-free | Makes 6-8 servings
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp butter (or olive oil)
- 6 oz bacon, cut into pieces
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 4 cloves of garlic, minced
- as many carrots as your heart tells you to put in, cut into small pieces (I usually do like 20 baby carrots cut into thirds but I’m a big carrots-in-soup fan)
- 8 oz dried lentils (see notes)
- 1.5-2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into pieces (see notes)
- 1 quart (32 oz) chicken stock or chicken broth
- a couple handfuls of baby spinach or finely shredded kale, if you have it
- salt, pepper, etc.
- lemon juice and/or parsley (see notes)
Notes:
Lentils: the original recipe calls for ~French~ lentils but I have to assume when I put a request in for French lentils, my Instacart shopper probably rolled their eyes so far back in their head that they’re likely still stuck there and gave me basic bitch green lentils, which are absolutely fine. Lentils are lentils, man, you do what you want.
Chicken: you can use the bone-in chicken parts originally suggested by the recipe author, but I found the final product to be a little too greasy for me with the skin, and I didn’t love picking out all the teeny bones/cartilage from my bowl. If you don’t like chicken breasts, use chicken thighs. If you like a fatty soup, use skin-on chicken. Chicken is chicken, man, you do what you want.
Lemon juice/parsley: this recipe is pretty good as-is, and if you don’t have either of these things, it’s totally fine. But adding a small squeeze of lemon juice into your bowl at the end will really brighten this soup up. The parsley is also a great way to add a little freshness.
Directions
Melt butter using the Saute setting on your Instant Pot, then saute bacon, onion and garlic until they’re softened. Your bacon should not be cooked at this point, it should still be that weird flabby texture. Now add in your carrots, lentils, chicken, chicken stock and salt/pepper.
Seal your Instant Pot and cook for 12 minutes at high pressure. Yeah, the original recipe says 20, but if you do that, those lentils are gonna be mush mush mush. Ask me how I know. I ate mush once. Let it natural release. If your chicken pieces were big ol’ chunks, pull chicken out, shred it up, and mix back into the piping hot stew along with the kale/spinach (if you’re using it). Add more salt/pepper if you need it.
The end. Squeeze some lemon juice into your bowl and top with a little chopped fresh parsley to add some brightness and freshness if you want. Serve with a delicious crusty bread absolutely slathered in butter.
Ratings
Right out of the pot:
🥐🥐🥐 / 🥐🥐🥐🥐🥐
It’s fine. Brothier than I want a stew to be and weirdly, not a ton of bacon flavor. The chicken is the main star of the show right out of the pot and everything else just kind of hangs out in the background.
Leftovers:
🥐🥐🥐🥐 / 🥐🥐🥐🥐🥐
Overnight, the lentils soaked up more of the liquid and it became thiccccc. The smokiness of the bacon was more pronounced. Excellent leftovers soup. Minus 1 croissant because the lentils did become pretty mushy.
Depression meal:
🥐🥐🥐 / 🥐🥐🥐🥐🥐
While the Instant Pot does boost it up to 3 croissants, there are still a number of things you have to do like cut a bunch of stuff up into pieces. If you bought a lot of this stuff pre-diced, like the carrots, onions and chicken, it would save time and energy. To be honest, you don’t HAVE to saute the bacon/onions first, but I think it significantly helps the overall flavor.
Anyway, that’s all I got. If this was a YouTube channel, I think this is the point where I would tell you to like and subscribe, but I’m assuming if you’re reading this, you a) already like me and/or b) are already subscribed. If neither of those things are true, well… ok. Bummer, man.
My Hungry Harvest box will apparently contain 2 lbs of carrots so I foresee a carrot-heavy soup in my future. If you know of one, send it my way — ashleyjperks@gmail works. Thanks for reading. This has been fun. Let’s do it again next week. 🥕🥕🥕