This recipe is best with
Recipe Ingredient
- 1 pair chicken boneless breasts
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp finely chopped parsley
- 1 tsp grated orange rind
- 1/4 level tsp pepper (freshly ground if possible)
- 1/2 level tsp salt
- 1 tbsp olive or sunflower oil
- Salad:
- 1 small head lettuce (romaine or butterhead)
- 1 small bunch watercress (or alfalfa sprouts, if you prefer)
- 1 orange
- 1 red apple (Royal Gala)
- Dressing:
- 4-5 fresh strawberries
- 1 level tsp sugar
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- Pinch of salt
- 1 tbsp olive or sunflower oil
Instructions
- Rinse chicken breasts and pat dry with paper towels.
- Rub marinade ingredients (the garlic, parsley, grated rind, pepper and salt) over chicken.
- Cover and set aside for 30 minutes while you get on with preparing ingredients for salad and the main course.
- Heat and fry chicken breasts for 5 minutes on each side, or until cooked and golden brown.
- Transfer onto a plate and leave to cool, before cutting into strips or cubes.
- Rinse lettuce leaves under running water.
- Shake off excess water.
- Dab with paper towels to dry and tear into bite-size pieces.
- Pluck off only the tops of the watercress--you'll need about 1 cup of loosely-packed shoots.
- Peel the orange and cut into segments or chunks (please use a sharp or at least serrated knife), catching juices in a bowl.
- Quarter apple, remove core and cut into chunks or slices, dropping them into the bowl of orange juice collected--this prevents their cut edges from turning an unappetising shade of brown.
- To assemble salad, you can either plate'' it the way they do in restaurants--arrange the ingredients artfully on a plate, with the different things in cute little piles--or fanned'' out in contrasting colours. But frankly, I much prefer the uncontrived casual look--like you've just effortlessly tossed the whole thing together.
- Cover with cling film and keep it refrigerated.
- When ready to serve, just take out, drizzle the dressing over and take it to the table.
- To make the dressing, choose 4 to 5 of the ripest-looking strawberries.
- Remove the green tops and place strawberries in a small bowl.
- Add the sugar and, using a teaspoon, squash the berries to a fine pulp.
- Add lemon juice and strain the lot through a small plastic sieve. (No sieve? Don't bother to strain the strawberries, although you do get a thicker, smoother dressing when you pass it through a sieve.)
- Combine the pureed strawberries with the oil and salt, beating it with a fork to combine.
- Drizzle over the salad.
