Asian Chicken Salad

Need a lean chicken salad recipe that is packed with flavour to box up for work? This recipe offers a little ‘heat’’ plus several other interesting flavours which make the dish so satisfying! I used chicken breast, but boiled egg or lean pork will also work well. If you find the dressing isn’t salty enough, add a little more fish sauce or simply season with salt.

Ingredients

• 1 TB olive oil
• 2 chicken breasts, skinless and deboned
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
• 4 spring onions, sliced thick
• 1 TB soy sauce
• 1 tsp fish sauce
• 2 TB lime juice
• 2 cups finely sliced baby gem lettuce
• 2 tsp roasted sesame oil
• ½ red chilli, finely sliced
• small handful coriander, finely sliced to garnish

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Heat the olive oil in a pan and cook the chicken breasts until golden and caramelised on the outside. Remove the chicken from the pan using tongs and place onto a lined tray. Cook in the oven for 15-20 minutes until safely cooked through.
3. In the meantime, add the garlic to the same pan used to cook the chicken and lower the heat to avoid the garlic burning. Add the spring onions and fry briefly before pouring in the soy sauce, fish sauce and lime sauce. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool a little.
4. Toss the sliced lettuce with the cooled contents of the pan (the garlic and juices) and divide between two plates.
5. Once the chicken is done, remove from the oven and slice. Serve over the dressed lettuce and drizzle over the sesame oil. Scatter over the sliced chilli and coriander leaves.