Roast chicken, lime and herb salad
A warm salad to eat this winter when the stodge and meat and molten cheese gets a bit too much.As I wrote in the blog post, don't worry about weighing your herbs and vegetables. 'A handful' is the amount you would cook for two people and can be assessed by eye.
Servings: 2
Ingredients
- 4 chicken drumsticks
- 1½ tbsp olive oil
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 heaped tsp butter
- 1 lime
- 3 tbsp sesame oil
- 3 tbsp soy sauce or if you’re gluten-intolerant, use a gluten-free soy sauce
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 cm fresh ginger peeled
- 1 clove of garlic
- A bag of salad greens which can include radicchio, curly endive, red leaf, frisée
- A handful of green beans ends removed
- A handful of sugar snap peas or mange tout
- 1 shallot
- A handful of fresh coriander and mint leaves
- 2 spring onions
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan. Pop the chicken into a baking tray, sprinkle with 1 tbsp oil, the salt and pepper and add the butter. Once the oven is hot, slide the dish inside and cook for 30 minutes, until the skin is golden and crispy and the juices run clear.
- Next, mix the dressing. Grate the ginger and garlic on the finest surface of your grater. In a jug mix together the juice of half the lime, the sesame oil, soy sauce, honey, ginger and garlic, taste and squeeze in more lime if necessary.
- Slice the shallot in half lengthways then chop into crescent moons. Heat the ½ tbsp olive oil in a frying pan then add the green beans and shallots. Stir fry them until there is some colour on the beans and the shallots are gold and crisp.
- Slice the sugar snaps into bite-sized pieces. Rinse the salad leaves in cold water and dry with some kitchen paper or a salad spinner if you’re fancy.
- Fill a bowl with cold water. Wash the spring onion and cut it into lengths a few inches long. Slice very thin strips lengthways and put them in the cold water. This will help them curl.
- When the chicken is smelling delicious, check the meat is cooked through with a knife or skewer. If the meat is white and firm it is done. There will be loads of juice in the pan. Squeeze over the rest of the lime and mix together.
- Toss the salad with the beans, shallots and sugar snaps, then coat in the salty-sweet dressing. Serve with the chicken legs in their juice, alongside a baguette.