Thai Chicken and Citrus Salad

As the weather warms up it's time to start thinking about salads. Geoff Jansz took full advantage of the plentiful supply of citrus fruit in season, and prepared a delicious Thai chicken and citrus salad. This recipe is easy to make, full of flavour and virtually fat free if you remove the fat and skin from the chicken.

Ingredients

Dressing

• juice of 3 limes
• 2 tablespoons palm or brown sugar
• 1 clove of garlic, chopped
• 1 medium to hot chilli, sliced
• 2-3 tablespoons Thai fish sauce

Salad

• 2 cups roasted, poached or purchased pre-cooked chicken (no seasoning)
• 2 cups mixed citrus segments
• 2 cups crisp salad ingredients - Geoff used Chinese cabbage, capsicums, red onion, cucumber and spring onion
• fresh herbs - mint, coriander and Thai basil
• bean sprouts
• extra herbs, for garnish
• chopped peanuts, for garnish

Method

1. To make the dressing put the lime juice into a saucepan along with the palm or brown sugar. Reduce to a syrup (3 or 4 minutes), then add the garlic and chilli. Remove from the heat and stir in the Thai fish sauce.
2. Chop the vegetables. Chop the herbs and reserve some to use as a garnish.
3. Mix the vegetables and herbs together, then add the bean sprouts. (Tip: keep bean sprouts in a bowl of water until ready to use; this stops them fermenting.)
4. Prepare the chicken by dicing the thigh and leg meat, and shredding the breast meat using two forks. If you wish, remove fat and skin from the chicken.
5. To assemble, drain the excess juice from the citrus segments and put them into a salad bowl. Toss in all the other ingredients.
6. Pile high onto serving plates, and garnish with reserved herbs and chopped peanuts.

Copyright CTC Productions 2000