Chopped salad with herbed chicken

In summer, I live on chopped salads. They always have sprouts, cooling herbs and an avocado. I change the dressings to suit the other vegetables I add. If you haven’t tasted a chopped salad before, you are in for a treat. The idea is to serve the salad on the chopping board, so make sure you have a really big board and try not to make too much of a mess when chopping.

• serves

  4

• prep

  15 minutes

• cook

  25 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 2 free-range chicken breast fillets
• 1 lime, sliced
• 2 spring onions, ends trimmed
• 1 Lebanese cucumber
• 100 g cherry tomatoes
• handful of alfalfa sprouts
• 1 avocado, peeled and halved
• 1 baby cos lettuce, leaves separated
• handful of mint leaves
• handful of coriander leaves
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1 tbsp verjuice
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Instructions

Put the chicken and the lime slices in a large frying pan, cover with water, bring to the boil, then reduce heat to low and poach for 25 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through. Remove from the pan and set aside to cool. Shred the chicken.

On a large chopping board, chop the spring onions. Add the cucumber and chop into the spring onion, then place the tomatoes on top and chop. Next, chop in the alfalfa sprouts, avocado, cos lettuce, herbs and chicken.

Make a well in the centre of the salad and add the mustard, verjuice and olive oil, then chop and fold into the salad.

Recipe from Beautiful Food by Jody Vassallo, with photographs by Jared Fowler (Harlequin, $39.99).

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.