This easy-prep dinner feels like a restaurant-quality dish!
One-pot meals are wonderful solutions to your evening dinnertime frenzy, and are quickly becoming a favorite of home chefs everywhere. When using a singular homestyle skillet, not only do you end up washing only one pot, and therefore, cutting down on your clean-up time, but you’re also allowing all of the flavors of your meal to mingle in one place, enriching one another and enhancing the overall meal.
This One Pot Balsamic Chicken, Carrots, and Lentils meal is a truly warming and satisfying dish that offers both sophistication and nutrition. Chicken is a terrific source of lean protein and lentils are packed with protein and fiber, making them a complex carbohydrate to feel good about. Lentils are also rich in iron, which many of us lack in our daily diets. Carrots lend vitamin A and beta-carotene, rounding out this healthful meal.
Balsamic vinegar, with its sweet, zesty taste, boosts this dish’s flavor profile. Its slight acidity balances out the sweet carrots and mellow chicken and lentils. Adding a bit of garlic takes this dinner to a new level, and earthy celery and bay leaves round it out nicely. This is a meal that is easy enough to prepare on a weeknight, but impressive enough to serve to guests. Try it out for your next dinner party, or just as a healthy weeknight dinner.
One-Pot Meal Balsamic Chicken, Carrots, and Lentils
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pounds boneless and skinless chicken thighs
- 8 tablespoons balsamic vinegar divided
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1 garlic clove crushed
- 2 onions medium, divided (1/2 finely chopped, 1 1/2 sliced)
- 5 carrots small, divided (1 peeled and finely chopped, 4 peeled and left whole)
- 1 celery stalk finely chopped
- 1 tomato medium, coarsely chopped
- 7 ounces dried lentils if using pre-cooked canned ones, lessen the cooking time
- 2 cups vegetable broth
- 2 bay leaves
- 8 cherry tomatoes
Instructions
- Make surface-deep slashes on the chicken then coat them in 5 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, 1/4 teaspoon salt and ground pepper. Set aside.
- Over medium heat, in a saucepan with extra virgin olive oil, sautè the garlic and 1/2 onion that has been finely chopped. After tossing for about 2 minutes, add 1 carrot that has been finely chopped, celery and tomatoes and cook for 5 minutes. Add the lentils and toss for 1 minute in the saucepan. Pour the broth and add the bay leaves, let it boil and cook for 30 minutes (much less if using pre-cooked canned ones) or until they are tender. If they are drying up, add more hot broth or hot water. Season with salt and pepper. When they are cooked, set them aside in a bowl.
- Wipe the saucepan with a paper towel to prepare cooking the chicken and carrots. Over medium heat, in a saucepan with extra virgin olive oil, cook the chicken with the balsamic vinegar you coated it with. Brown both sides. Half-way through cooking the chicken, add the remaining 4 whole carrots. Cook until tender.
- Push the chicken on one side of the saucepan and the carrots in another side. Leave space for the lentils, onions and tomatoes. Place the onions in one side of the saucepan and cook for about 2 minutes. Add the lentils on one side of the saucepan and cook some more for 2 minutes to warm it up. Place the tomatoes in the saucepan. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil. Serve while hot.
Nutrition Information
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Here are more delicious chicken and vegetable recipes to try:
Easy One-Pot Chicken & Rice Dinner
Grilled Chicken and Avocado Salad
Asian Stir-Fry with Cashews & Chicken
Healthy Sautéed Rice with Peas and Chicken
Grilled Chicken and Vegetable Skewers
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We’d love to hear what you think. Leave us a comment in the comments section below.
This meal looks absolutely fantantic ~ a true solution to dinner. One pot meals are the best. I just feel like I wash the same 6 pots and pans every day. It's just like that movie Groundhog Day. That's my life.
Tried this tonight…very tasty and super easy! Thank you for the recipe! 🙂
Questions about the recipe:
(1) When are the remaining 3 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar added?
(2) are the sliced 1 1/2 onions added at end and sautéed down or when the chicken is cooked?
Hi Linda,
1) add the 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar while cooking the carrots.
2) the sliced 1-1/2 onions are quickly sautèed for about 2 minutes at the end of all the cooking (this is mentioned at the last paragraph)
How do you know if the juice runs clear, when everything is black from the balsamic vinegar?
Ted, Just made this last night. 🙂 If you can’t tell if the juices run clear, you can test with a meat thermometer. Place in the thickest part of a thigh without touching the bone, it should read at least 165 degrees. I prefer 175. Does this help?
Excellent!! I didn’t do it all in one pan. I used cast iron for the chicken and carrots. The flavors were just wonderful and the meal felt healthy and hearty. Thanks!