Shredded Chicken, Broccoli and Chick Pea Warm Herb Salad

Serves 4

 I prepare this salad as a dinner for my family during the week as it’s easy to do and is super healthy. You can do so many variations on this with whatever happens to be in the fridge vegetable drawer. For instance I've added chopped capsicum, sprouts, spring onions etc. It’s a good recipe for experimentation. Leave the olives out if you are not a fan. I sprinkle mine with some dried chilli flakes to add some heat.


Ingredients

 For Salad Mix
2 x free-range chicken breasts (approximately 600gms to 700gms)
1.5L chicken stock (or slightly salted water)
1 x 400gm tin of chickpeas (rinsed well and drained)
1 x large head of broccoli cut into small florets (use the main stem as well, cutting  away the hard outer skin and dicing the core)
Handful of black, pitted Kalamata olives
1 tspn. cumin seeds
2 x cloves of garlic sliced
2 x tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 bunch continental parsley (finely chopped)
1 bunch coriander (finely chopped)
1 bunch mint (finely chopped)
½ punnet cherry tomatoes cut into quarters length-ways
1 carrot peeled and grated
1 Lebanese cucumber diced
1 tspn. dried chilli flakes (optional)
Salt & pepper to season

For Dressing
4 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp. red wine vinegar

Method

Pre-heat fan oven to 170C.

Mix together thoroughly - chickpeas, olives, garlic, cumin, broccoli, 2 tbsp. of olive oil and salt and pepper in a mixing bowl and transfer to a large baking tray. Place in the oven and cook for 35 minutes.

Meanwhile, poach the chicken breasts whole in the stock. Do this placing the breasts in the stock at room temperature, bring to the boil and boil for 8 minutes. Remove from heat and leave standing in the stock for a further 10 minutes. Remove from stock and allow to cool enough so they can be shredded by hand (approximately 10 minutes).

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl. Serve immediately warm or just above room temperature.

Tip
You can add some zing to this salad by adding some crumbled goat or sheep’s feta, sprinkled over the top.

Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 9, 2012 at 4:50 PM

    Sean, this looks and sounds amazing! Does it taste just as good cold if I was to make enough for lunches?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sean CooksonNovember 10, 2012 at 1:12 PM

    Hi Rachel, yes that's exactly what I do. I refrigerate whatever is left over and use the next day for lunches.

    ReplyDelete

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