I love cooking with chicken thighs as they are great to cook with rather than breast as they don’t dry out like breast can and they carry loads of flavour.
This chicken thigh & avocado salad recipe is a wonderful one to make when you have friends or someone coming for lunch that you want to impress. It’s very fresh and plates easily looking like you have a chef in the house.
Serves 4
Ingredients
4 chicken thighs, bone out
2 tsp garlic, minced
Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
Olive or coconut oil
1 tbsp butter
1 pkt mixed salad greens
250g (10 oz) cherry tomatoes
100g (4oz) fresh bean shoots
1 green or red capsicum
150g (6oz) button mushrooms, halved
1 tsp fresh diced thyme
100g (4oz) almond flakes, lightly toasted
2 avocados, chopped into even cubes
2 tbsp Italian salad dressing
2 tbsp aioli (garlic mayonnaise)
1 tsp curry powder
Method
In a bowl combine the chicken thighs with the garlic, salt and pepper to taste and turn and rub the garlic so all of the thighs are seasoned.
In a frying pan over a medium heat warm up the oil. Cook chicken thighs in the pan for approx 5 – 7 minutes on each side. Set aside in a bowl and let them cool before slicing chicken.
While the chicken is cooling add butter, mushrooms and thyme to the pan over the medium heat. Sauté for 4-5 minutes turning often to lightly brown off the mushrooms. Do not over cook them as they should have a bit firmness to them.
Top the cooling chicken with the mushrooms in the bowl with any juices. Cover and let the chicken and mushrooms cool to room temp.
In a salad bowl, mix salad greens, tomatoes, bean shoots, capsicum, mushrooms and Italian dressing.
In another bowl mix curry the powder with aioli, gently mix with chopped avocado. Take care when mixing as you want to retain the cube shapes
Slice each chicken thighs into 10mm (1/2 inch) slices.
To serve, make a beds of the salad greens mixture in wide dessert bowls, top with the avocado mixture followed by slices of chicken and garnish with fresh coriander leaves or flat leaf parsley and toasted almonds.
For some additional flavour you can sprinkle some cooked and crumbed bacon as a garnish.
Recipes from Jimmy Boswell
Jimmy Boswell
