I love stew in the winter months they are so easy to prep and get ready and a fab way of using up all those veggies in the bottom of the fridge.

In this recipe i have used chicken thighs as its a much cheaper cut of meat and doesn’t dry out during cooking. If you want to use chicken breast leave the breast whole then once cooked dice or shred.

You can use chicken legs with the bone in but remove the skin cook the legs with the bone in then once cooked remove and take out the bone its so much easier to remove the bone once the chicken is cooked.

Lentils, add any lentils you like i used pearl barley as it works so well in a stew. Lentils swell during cooking so you may need to add a little more water depending on what vegetables you have used.

Any vegetables especially root vegetables will work in this recipe, butternut squash, swede/turnip, parsnips etc. Use whatever you have and can get hold of easily.

I was going to add dumplings to the slow cooker last 45 mins but ran out of time but they will work well with this stew.

Thickening the gravy can be done several ways probably the easiest way is to add Chicken Gravy Granules unfortunately I didn’t have any so used Xanthan Gum which is found in most supermarkets but only add small amounts at a time.