Warm chicken salad & mixed herb dressing

I’ve worked out after a month of no sugar that I can very easily get sick of chicken and salad.  Having said that, I LIKE chicken and salad as long as I keep the flavours tasty and strong.  I much prefer using chicken thighs over breasts for the juiciness and they are much more forgiving to cook.  This recipe was last night’s dinner and then I had  the leftovers for both breakfast and lunch today, and I still liked it (a lot), so I hope you do too! There is something appealing about a warm chicken salad that tastes delicious & healthy.

Very green salad

I just emptied out my vegetable crisper and wanted to use up a whole lot of bits and pieces.  I had quite a few different packets of sprouts I’d bought, so they feature strongly in this recipe!  Quantities will depend on what you have, but it was a good combination of different greens, a splash of purple and the crunch from the sprouts.

• baby spinach
• 2-3 leaves curly kale, de-stemmed and finely shredded
• flat leaf kale, finely shredded
• 1/4 red/purple cabbage finely sliced
• lots of sprouts – I had sunflower, alfalfa, bean & pea sprouts

1.  Toss all ingredients together.  Serve with mixed herb dressing below or dressing of choice.

Spiced chicken thighs

• spice mix of your choice – I used a smokey peri-peri one.
• chicken thighs
• 1-2 Tbsp ghee for cooking – or oil of your choice – perhaps macadamia oil.

1.  Put spice mix in a bowl.  Place chicken thighs one at a time in the spice mix, flip over in the bowl to coat the chicken.
2.  Melt ghee in a heavy based pan.  When hot put the thighs in the pan.  Cook till browned on each side and cooked through.  I find it helpful towards the end to put a lid on the pan to finish off the cooking a bit faster and keep it moist.
3. Remove.  Stand for 5 mins then slice thinly and serve over the salad.

Mixed herb Dressing

Like the very green salad, this dressing can vary depending on what herbs you have.  I’ve made this quite a few times lately and this was the best version yet.

• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 small knob of ginger (peeled)
• handful of coriander
• handful of basil
• handful of rocket
• handful of flat leafed parsley
• few sprigs of thyme
• few sprigs of mint
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• olive oil
• water
• salt & pepper

1. Blitz the garlic and ginger in your blender/food processor/thermie (speed 7/3 sec).
2. Add all the herbs &  lemon juice and blitz again (Thermie speed 8/5 sec).  Scrap down side of bowl and repeat if not finely chopped.
3. Add a few tablespoons of oil, blitz again (Therm speed 7/5-10 sec)
4. If using a thermie, insert butterfly. Whilst your blitzer is running add another few tablespoons of olive oil (thermie speed 4/10sec or so).  Check.  If you want to thin it out, scrape down the sides and add a few tablespoons of water.  Taste.  Adjust with salt & pepper,  oil & water to taste.