Dinner

Chicken Dhansak with Red Lentils

Name: Chicken Dhansak with Red Lentils
Prep time: 25 min
Total time: 25 min
Yield: 2 servings
Ingredients: 280 g Chicken breast; 90 g Red lentils; 100 g Onion; 2 cloves, about 6 g Garlic; A thumb, grated Fresh ginger; 2 tsp, about 4 g Curry powder; 1 tsp, about 2 g Ground cumin; 200 g Chopped tomatoes, tinned; 400 ml Chicken stock; 80 g Pineapple; Of half a lemon Lemon juice; 8 g Rapeseed oil

Chicken breast in a thick lentil curry that is sweet from pineapple and sharp from lemon, in the British restaurant style. 46 g of protein for 446 kcal a serving.

Calories: 446kcal
Protein: 46g
Fat: 9g
Carbs: 42g

Per serving, makes 2. 25 minutes of work, then thirty minutes simmering. Published 8 September 2026.

Allergens

Celery

Some blends include mustard seed. Check the jar.
Nearly every stock cube and pot lists celery. Home-made stock without it carries no flag.

Flags follow UK labelling rules and come from the ingredients as listed, not from any particular brand. Check the packet before cooking for somebody with an allergy.

Ingredients

Chicken breast280 g
Weighed raw. The same piece weighed after cooking has lost water, so the protein per gram is higher and the total would come out about a quarter over.
Red lentils90 g
Rinsed. Ninety grams dry is about 220 g cooked and thickens the whole pan. Dry weight.
Onion100 g
Garlic2 cloves, about 6 g
Fresh gingerA thumb, grated
Curry powder2 tsp, about 4 g
Ground cumin1 tsp, about 2 g
Chopped tomatoes, tinned200 g
Chicken stock400 ml
Made up from a cube or a pot.
Pineapple80 g
Fresh or tinned in juice, drained. It is the sweetness a dhansak is known for and 40 kcal for the pan. Flesh only.
Lemon juiceOf half a lemon
Rapeseed oil8 g

Method

Soften the chopped onion in the oil for six minutes, add the garlic, ginger, curry powder and cumin and cook for a minute more.
Add the lentils, tomatoes and stock, bring to the boil and simmer for fifteen minutes, stirring now and then so the lentils do not catch.
Add the chicken in chunks and the pineapple and simmer for twelve minutes more until the chicken is cooked and the lentils have collapsed into a thick sauce.
Season with the lemon and salt. Loosen with water if it has gone stodgy.

Worth knowing

The lentils are the second protein. Ninety grams dry contributes about 11 g a serving, so the chicken can be modest.
No rice on the plate as written. Add 120 g of cooked rice for another 156 kcal.

Other dinner recipes that share ingredients with this one, or every dinner between 300 and 450 calories a serving.

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Macros are calculated from the weights listed above using standard food composition values, and will shift with your own brands and measuring. Weigh what you can. This is a recipe, not dietary advice. The full health disclaimer is below.