Florence Fabricant's Chicken Baked with Lentils

This week marks my sixth week of apartment hunting in Berlin. I took a break the week between Christmas and New Year's and again when I was felled with the stomach flu. But besides that, looking for a place to live has become my new job. And, boy, do I hate this new job. Ooh! With vim and vigor. But who wouldn't? No one, that's who. I can practically see you all nodding your heads in agreement when I say that apartment hunting is the pits. Let me tell you, I'd rather be doing the most mind-numbing data entry in a windowless room than trudging up yet another set of stairs. But as I am 32 years old and I cannot live in my mother's apartment, pulling things out of a suitcase every day, for the rest of my life, I persevere. And I muse upon the fact that I've now spent more time looking for an apartment here than I did in all of my almost ten years in New York City. Ain't that a kick in the head?

Never mind! Instead of complaining, let's talk about nice things, shall we? Like some of the things that make me happy here.

1. Eating Nutella on fresh, yeasty rolls for breakfast. Who over the age of 10 still eats Nutella for breakfast? Well, me. It is delicious, obviously. And can I tell you something scandalous and wonderful? All of my pants are loose! Turns out eating Nutella on a regular basis is great for your waistline.

2. Buying tulips for peanuts. The proximity to Holland, I suppose, makes cut flowers incredibly cheap here. I bought a dozen tulips for my mother the other day, the fancy, frilly kind, for less than 5 euros. Peanuts! And just wait until the ranunculus (ranunculii?) start coming into stores. Fresh flowers every day!

3. Listening to NPR Worldwide on the radio, 104.1 FM to be exact. Hearing Renee Montagne's and Steve Inskeep's familiar voices from my old mornings in Queens during the day in Berlin is strange and lovely at the same time.

4. One word: soccer. Every week.

5. Despite missing my friends in New York and my old life and my awesome, awesome city, I feel peace in my heart here. I'm supposed to be here, even with this apartment hunt and the never ending ice and snow and the cold apartments and the gray skies. I'm home. And that feels good.

You know what else is good? Florence Fabricant's prosaically named Chicken Baked with Lentils. (That may have been the worst transition in the history of this blog. Forgive me? My artistic juice is currently on the lam, though fortunately my mojo seems to have returned.) Lentils and radicchio flavored with sage and cumin, chunks of ham and a splash of vinegar are the stars in this easy braise of golden brown chicken legs. So much more sophisticated than the name indicates, no? And yet it's still easy enough to work as a weekend lunch or a weeknight dinner.

The other day, after a morning of seeing apartments with my mother gamely in tow, now that she's in town for a few weeks, I decided we had to take a break. We needed a hot meal and respite from the icy streets. And I needed to focus on something other than apartments. My obsessive mind needed calming, needed to simply dice onions and boil stock, rather than have another conversation about renovation costs, look at another floor plan, or contemplate another compromise.

So I set about cutting up celery and onions, thin-slicing radicchio, browning cubes of bacon and chicken legs and trying to find my center, not to sound like a total yahoo. And it totally worked! I found it! Turns out it was in the kitchen all along. What a surprise, I know.

Basically, you make this deeply flavored base for the dish, using bitter radicchio, mellow bacon, herbal sage, a kick of vinegar, earthy cumin, and onions and celery for good measure. Then you stir in lentils and lay browned chicken legs (or just thighs, whichever) on top, and cook the lot in the oven for an hour, until the liquid is mostly absorbed, the lentils are plump and bursting with flavor, and the chicken is so moist and tender it practically slides off the bone onto your fork in one fell swoop.

It's not much to look at, I suppose, from the point of view of an aesthete. But as with a lot of peasant food, I think its beauty is special precisely because you have to look twice to see it. Once you do, it's hard to avoid. The gravel-like lentils, shining like little planets in the sky of the plate. The golden tones of the chicken, skin puckered and delicate as a lace shawl. The chunks of bacon, rosy-hued and glowing with flavor.

Florence says to serve this with mashed potatoes, but it was so hearty we found it didn't even need a side. Just a deep plate, a big fork, an appetite, and a hankering for comfort. Delicious.

Chicken Baked with Lentils
Serves 4 to 6

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/4 pound pancetta or bacon, in one slice, diced
3 pounds chicken thighs, 6 to 8 pieces, patted dry
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cups finely chopped onions
1/2 cup finely chopped celery, about 1 rib
4 cloves garlic, sliced
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 cups finely chopped radicchio, about 1/2 head, cored
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons minced fresh sage
2 cups lentils
3 cups chicken stock, more if needed

1. Heat oil in a 4-quart ovenproof casserole. Add pancetta and cook on medium until golden. Remove. Season chicken with salt and pepper and add, skin side down. Sear until golden on medium-high heat, working in two shifts if necessary. Remove from pan. Heat oven to 300 degrees. Pour off all but 2 tablespoons fat from pan.

2. Add onions, celery and garlic, cook on medium until soft and translucent. Stir in cumin. Add radicchio, vinegar and sage; sauté briefly. Add lentils, stock and cooked pancetta.

3. Return chicken to pan, bring to a simmer, cover and place in oven. Cook about an hour, until lentils are tender and most of the liquid has been absorbed, but not all. Lentils should be saucelike but not soupy. Add a little stock if needed. Check seasoning, adding more salt and pepper if needed, then serve.

Comments

[alana]

Nutella and cheap tulips? I'm coming to Berlin!

[the lacquer spoon]

Ooh, this is real comfort food amid winter blues!!

[Natasa]

well, this sounds really delicious - i will certainly cook it this week.

[allisonmn]

i love how comforting this meal is. it's a fresh spin because eating a hearty pot roast can get "old" real fast during cold months.

[sugar plum fairy]

Lovely blog with fantastic recipes........love all of 'em always.....

[ann]

I have a dish similar to this in my repetoir, that features cloves. It really is good, but I'll have to try this one. The vinegar and ham really sell it to me ;-) Bytheway, I made the sauerkraut soup on Saturday night and it was *fantastic*. Thanks for sharing that. What a great winter warmer. Good luck with the apartment! You'll find the right one!!

[Anna]

Loving these posts from Europe. Bon courage for the continued apartment search...I think a long search should be rewarded with the most wonderful results.
I think I'll try making this during the week; thanks!

[House Hunting in Paris]

Good luck with the apartment search, I totally sympathize. Been searching for over 5 wks here! I keep telling myself "the perfect apartment is waiting for you, it's just a matter of finding it" - all it takes is a lot of patience and little bit of luck! Fingers crossed for the both of us.

[Kate Miller]

That looks incredible! I definitely want to try this out, just so I can smell it cooking in my kitchen.

[Warda]

You got me with Nutella and Soccer!! And lentils are always welcome in my kitchen. Good luck appt hunting, Luisa!

[kathleen]

I was eyeing this recipe too, it looks fantastic! I don't know if you were able to find Pancetta in Berlin - it took me a while to find it in Hamburg but I have had luck at the various little Italian shops - they generally have a deli case. The pasta cart at my Wochenmarkt also has it. Warning - they always want to cut it schön dünn. :) Good luck with the apartment hunting!

[The Food Hunter]

Looks delicious. I love lentils.

[Christine]

I saw this recipe the other day and debated making it over my typical lentil soup: lentils, onion, carrot, celery, good olive oil, some pasta and lots of black pepper... The lentil soup won this past weekend when we had about 2 feet of snow in Philadelphia, but I have a feeling that this meal will be made in the next couple of weekends. I love lentils.

[la ninja]

nutella, tulips, lentils and chicken. ha.lle.lu.jah sista (and I don't normally even say that sort of thang.)

good to read you finally found your mojo back... and your centre! if I may venture to guess, they've been there all the time just hiding behind the curtains, right? (they always do that, the buggers.)

good luck with that hunt.

[small kitch cara]

oh wow that dish looks right up my alley--just what I'm craving in New York as I think about how my lease will be up in a few months and I'll have to apartment hunt.

[Christine]

I intend to hie me to the kitchen and cook this up! Wondering if the skin gets that weird flabby texture or if the browning cooks it down enough to prevent that?

[The Rowdy Chowgirl]

So nice that even though you don't have a home of your own just now, you can still have homey food...

[Vanessa]

So we both enjoy the same things in Berlin and like you, I'm so happy to feel at home here. I'm keeping my fingers crossed you'll find a new place soon (I'm planning on getting my own apartment this summer) but in the meantime, thanks so much for the serious comfort food and the heart warming posts. Reading you always makes me feel good.

[Adele]

I feel for you, Luisa. My husband and I were house hunting last year for months, and ended up buying a house just to have somewhere to live. We're still looking for the perfect house. But I think you've found the perfect chicken dish. (how's that for transition?). Good luck!

[Julia of Randomly Yours, Julia]

It might be the soccer more than the Nutella that's making your pants loose... but, you need the Nutella energy to play soccer, so it's a win-win!
Glad you're finding your mojo in the kitchen and I'm sure you'll have a whole apartment to call your own soon. (Do you look at the kitchen first when you're apartment-hunting?)

[Zoomie]

I have eaten lentils before but never actually cooked them myself but this sounds so good that I'm going to go out and buy lentils tomorrow. Thanks! And good luck with the apartment search - you'll know your home when you see it.

[Dawn (KitchenTravels)]

"A hankering for comfort." Those four words alone make me want to cook this dish.

[Reemski]

ah, apart from the hideousness of looking for somewhere to live, it sounds as though things are finally starting to feel ok there...i hope it continues.

And doesn't nutella for breakfast just rock your world???

[Sarah]

I know *exactly* what you mean about peasant food being so ugly it's beautiful. In fact, at the risk of sounding all weird and stalker-y, you kind of introduced me to the concept. Do you remember the recipe for Marcella Hazan's Rice and Smothered Cabbage Soup that you posted two years ago? I think that was the first recipe I ever made from a food blog--and it was a good choice, it's become a staple in our house. I wrote about it (http://smalltastes.blogspot.com/2008/02/rice-and-smothered-cabbage-soup.html) that "Certain dishes are so lacking in appeal to the eye that their appeal to the belly is all the greater." Now I actively look for that kind of recipe. I would never have thought to combine lentils, radicchio, cumin, and sage--but now I'm going to have to try it.

[Sues]

Mmmm! I'm always looking for new recipes that use lentils and this one looks just lovely :)

[Molly]

Well now, I saw Florence's dish when it first ran, and yawned, and fell asleep, and moved on. And I LOVE lentils. So glad you revived it -- suddenly seems worth a go!

First the mojo, next the apartment, surely!

[Kelsey/TheNaptimeChef]

mmm, what a cozy dish! We are expected 12inches of snow in NYC tomorrow so be grateful you are not here for that. good luck with the apartment hunt, it's never been my favorite activity. Remember, the gems always pop up when you least expect it!

[Kristine in Santa Barbara]

I loved this. I made it tonight, doing 1/2 of the recipe. I didn't have radicchio, so I used kale from my garden. I had only plain brown lentils...no french green lentils. Otherwise I followed the recipe. The lentils came out so tasty, the chicken turns out so tender. All that wintery/stew/cassoulet flavor for so little work.! Thanks for the post and the inspiration.

[Kaffeebohne]

Louisa, I know it is a cold comfort but I can't remember since we had such a cold winter like we have this time.
I keep my fingers crossed that you will find a cosy place soon. Berlin is a wonderful city. Did you ever read 'Dear Germany' written by Carol Kloeppel the american wife of RTL anchorman Peter Kloeppel?

[Drew]

This reminds me of my days (way back) apartment hunting in Paris. The thought of some of the apartments I saw still makes me shiver, but the one I ended up with still makes me smile when I think of it.

[Luisa]

Ann - so glad you liked that soup! How's the dresser working out?

Christine - it does get a bit weird and flabby. I just pulled it right off before eating.

Vanessa - thank you! I'm so glad to hear it. :)

Julia - you are adorable: I'm WATCHING soccer on tv, not playing it. :) Here in Berlin, the kitchen is usually empty, except for a dingy stove so I try to look for space and...atmosphere?

Reemski - yes and yes!

Sarah - how great! I'm so honored that was your first dish out of the blog world... :)

Kaffebohne - no, I haven't, but I'm going to look it up on Amazon right now. Thanks for the tip!

Drew - I'm hoping that's what I end up with too, something that makes me smile!

[Anna @ unsweetenedcocoa]

On, sadness that your apartment hunting is dragging on for so long. There is no way around it--it IS the pits. I hope you find something good soon.

The minute I saw this picture and read the title, I got very excited, which must mean I like prosaic things. But I do! And I like nutella for brekkie, too. Who doesn't? Sounds like an awesome diet.

[Irina]

A friend of mine lives in a lovely (super cozy) flat on Hufelandstraße in Prenzlauer Berg. She pays almost nothing too!

Have you had a look there?

Good luck with your search... Berlin is oh so lovely

[Irina]

Also, I forgot to mention, if you're in Kreuzberg one morning (looking for a flat I presume) and need a warm meal and coffee, you must must must stop in Fuchsbau! I had their Eier Auf Toast a few weeks back and it was amazing.

Planufer 96
Telefon: 691 75 95

[Jenious]

Psst, Nutella swirled in oatmeal is a superb "adult breakfast" guise. This recipe will offer much comfort during the storm that's headed our way, thank you. Best of luck with your hunt.

[Jennifer Jo]

We're in the middle of The Lentil Wars at my house---this recipe just might win the battle...for my side, of course.

[heather @ chik n pastry]

oh nutella..... i happen to be a 29 year old who still loves it :)
and the chicken/lentils dish looks great - nice break from crappy ol apartment hunting!

[Figtreeapps]

Public radio always helps me feel connected. I cant wait for your first picture taken at your new kitchen table in your NEW kitchen..its around the corner..I know it!!!

[amelia]

Berlin, Nutella, and tulips. sighhh.

but in other news: yummm!! Definitely want to try this. Looks so easy and affordable. Thanks!

[KitchenPickersMakeBiggerKnickers]

Nutella with yeasty rolls - sounds HEAVEN!

[Mitzimi]

Nutella and tulips - my favorite things!

Trust me, Nutella on a daily basis is definitely good for you. You're not the only adult that still eats it for breakfast (or lunch ... or dinner ... ;)

[RTS]

I made this last night, entirely by coincidence since I didn't see the blog post until this morning. I used uncured bacon (left over from chocolate-peanut butter bacon truffles) and braised the dish in a slow cooker on low for 6 hours. Chicken was juicy, lentils were tender yet toothsome and best of all dinner was ready when we got home. Lots of leftovers too. Served it with a side of broccoli rabe and a cru bordeaux from 2006. Nice weeknight meal.

[evy]

My mother in law has been telling me she is craving lentejas- lentils. What a nice recipe to surprise her with! Thank you.

[genia]

i presume you mean dried lentils? maybe it is a silly question but im new to lentils and am a little unsure.

[Janna]

Well I think it does look very aesthetically pleasing indeed....:)

[Sally]

If I have dried lentils from the supermarket, do I need to soak them overnight first? Help! Looks so yummy and satisfying for a cold Canadian winter night.

[Andrea]

Oh, nutella, sigh. After a trip to Montreal's Jean Talon Market not long ago where I ate a buckwheat crepe with nutella, I bought a whole jar and ate it on toast for breakfast every day until it ran out. And then I decided to put my addiction on a diet. Sigh. Nutella. And I'm 32 also, so there's at least two of us over ten who still eat it.

[Tracy (Amuse-bouche for Two)]

This looks very hearty and tasty...leaving very little room for espresso and dessert, but I think I would manage. Mind over matter. Leftovers. This would make for very nice leftovers.

[Julie Rubaud]

Do you realize that most of your blog posts begin with complaints? I know that life can be tough at times, but maybe you should get a little perspective. Help out someone else, do things for others, keep your petty and mundane complaints to yourself. You sound like the rich ladies I hear who talk about how "hard" it is that there kitchen is getting renovated. Come on, cheer up, butter cup.

[Merry & Mod]

Thank you for this recipe. As soon as I read the prosiac title, I knew I would love it. I plan to try it immediately and I have a feeling it become a standby. (I have special place in my heart for my dutch oven.)

Good luck on the apartment search. In the end, I'm sure it will be worth the wait.