Indian Spice Chicken with Red Lentils

This recipe begins our "pre-move kitchen clean-out" phase, which you will benefit from over the course of this week! We are trying to get rid of anything in our freezer (which is never that much), most refrigerated items that we can (other than some standards), and most importantly, our large supply of bulk foods. In order to do this, we're turning to lots of recipes from Budget Bytes (who recently updated her website!), to inspire us to come up with creative ways to use up stuff. This recipe was pretty easy for Will to imagine up, since we've made things like this before. He had purchased some meats at an EarthFare meat sale last week, so this was the best way to use up the chicken. The rest of the ingredients are things we usually have on hand AND it helped us get rid of our red lentils (and jasmine rice). This made enough for dinner and we've been enjoying the leftovers for lunch throughout the weekend. Not too spicy, but not plain chicken either. We only wish we had made naan bread to go with it!

Indian Spice Chicken with Red Lentils (serves 4)
1 cup red lentils
2 cups chicken broth
1 clove minced garlic
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup half and half (cream, milk, or coconut milk would work too)
1 lb. chicken breast, cut into thin strips
1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
2 tbsp butter

Rinse lentils in a strainer. Bring the chicken broth to a boil, then add lentils, minced garlic, salt, and turmeric. Simmer on low for 20 minutes. After liquid has been absorbed, turn off heat, add 1/3 cup half and half, stirring to combine.

To cook chicken, melt the butter in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Add spices until butter is fragrant. Add chicken and saute until no longer pink, 5-7 minutes. Serve with jasmine rice and lentils.