MEDITERRANEAN CHICKEN SALAD

 

What’s the best part of having a butter fruit tree at home?

Your heart doesn’t shatter into a hundred pieces when you have to chuck the overripe one in the bin.

Puppy in the background trying to eat the fallen avocados!

We have three at home and Skip and the Puppy are currently on a mission to shoo away people who sneak into our garden to pluck the avocados. Last year we had a good crop and we had the fruit on our toasts, with scrambled eggs, in burgers, in tacos, guacamole and the old-fashioned way with sugar. This year saw hundreds of fallen, shrivelled avocados due to the off-season rains. Most of the ones that made it past adolescence got stolen by fruit thieves and the ones that remain are being fiercely protected by Skip who has apparently threatened to let the Puppy loose on these miscreants. Skip is however concerned that if the day does come, when he has to let the Puppy off the leash, these fruit thieves would get to know that our ferocious looking boxer is nothing but an attention seeking, big ball of floof, who, if left to him, would gladly give away all the avocados in the tree for a few pats on the head, a belly rub, a game of tug, two games of fetch and one of chase.

When Skip brought 4 avocados from the garden, I immediately had one on garlic toast, because that’s how I currently like it best. I decided to use the remaining in salads.

I had chicken lying around and I came across this wonderfully lemony and herb-y recipe for chicken salad which didn’t call for avocados but I threw one in anyway.

The marinated chicken tasted great by itself and makes for a great appetiser. I wish I had lettuce, that would have added the crunch, the salad needed. I used caramelised almonds instead. Throw in a whole lot of garlic chips if you like the flavour, it goes well with the herbed, lemon chicken. The original recipe also called for olives which I didn’t have at that time.

If salads tasted this good all the time, I’d gladly skip meals.

For more salad recipes, please follow me on Instagram and Facebook @lucilucent.

I have recipes for a Boiled Egg Salad, Cottage Cheese Broccoli and Corn Salad and a Chicken and Mango Salad on my blog. Do check it out. I have some vegetarian salad recipes coming up next.

MEDITERRANEAN CHICKEN SALAD

 

Ingredients:

For the dressing:

Olive oil – 2 tbsp

Lemon juice – ¼ cup

Water – 2 tbsp

Vinegar – 1 tbsp

Oregano – 1 tbsp

Garlic (either powdered or minced) – 2 tsp

Salt, pepper – to taste

Salad ingredients:

Boneless chicken – 300 gms

English cucumber – 1

Tomato – 1

Avocado – 1

Garlic cloves – 6-7

Almonds – 10

Mayonnaise – 1 tbsp

Method:

1.     Whisk the dressing ingredients and marinate the chicken in it for a few hours.

2.     In a pan, add a little oil. Add almonds and sauté for a minute. Sprinkle a little salt and a generous pinch of sugar and sauté the almonds until they have caramelised. Set aside.

3.     Into the same pan, add sliced garlic and fry it until they turn crisp. Set aside.

4.     In a grill pan, add a table spoon of oil and grill the marinated chicken and half the marinade until the chicken is fully cooked and brown. Pour the remaining marinade and give the chicken a good mix and turn off the flame.

5.     Dice the cucumber, tomato and avocado. Add mayonnaise to it and give it a good mix. Add the pieces of chicken to it and pour the leftover marinade onto the salad and give it a good mix.

6.     Top the salad with the caramelised almonds and garlic chips. Sprinkle salt and pepper.

7.     Done.