Free Healthy Recipe - Poached Chicken Salad with Sweet Persimmon & Somtan Dressing

Dairy free, Gluten free, Low carbohydrate, Low fat, Low GI, Low sugar, Wheat Free

South East Asian cookery is all about balancing and pushing the sweet, salty, and sour notes in a dish. In this recipe the persimmons add the perfect amount of sweetness to this Thai-based salad, full of lively colours, textures and flavours.

Ingredients
2 chicken - organic breasts, poached
4 persimmon sweet, peeled and cut into 7mm batons
1 cucumber continetal, peeled and quartered lenthways and sliced into 3mm on a diagonal
4 chinese cabbage leaves, shredded
2 shallots (or eshallots) red ones, thinly sliced
½ cup mint, leaves, torn
½ cup coriander, including stalks, roughly chopped
1 chilli pepper - fresh red, finely sliced
2½ tbsp fish sauce
5 tbsp limes, juice, fresh
5 tsp sugar, caster
2 cloves garlic
2 tbsp rice, ground, roasted*
3 tbsp shallots (or eshallots), deep fried*
4 tbsp peanuts, salted, roasted
Method

To poach the chicken: Cover the chicken with water in a small pot. Bring to the boil and then reduce to a low simmer to cook for 45 minutes, covered. Cool completely in poaching liquid then transfer to a plate to shred finely with 2 forks (the remaining poaching liquid can be frozen to use in stock).

To make the dressing, combine fish sauce, lime juice, sugar, and garlic in a small recycled glass jar and shake hard until sugar is dissolved.

To assemble: Combine persimmons, cucumber, cabbage, spring onions, mint, coriander and chilli, chicken and dressing in a medium bowl and toss with hands or chopsticks so as to not bruise the ingredients.

Divide into 4 portions and garnish with roasted rice, fried shallots and peanuts and serve immediately.

* Note you may make your own roasted ground rice by purchasing glutinous or sticky rice from an Asian grocer and dry roasting 1/2-1 cup in a wok or frypan on low heat until a pale golden colour. You must exercise some patience while doing this as a high heat will burn the rice but not toast it all the way through. Do not use any other type of rice as they will be unpalatable even after toasting, while this type of rice will shatter nicely between your teeth. After toasting, cool, then pound in a mortar and pestle or grind in a spice grinder to a sandy consistency. Store in an airtight glass container for up to 2 months.

*Fried shallots are available at your Asian grocer.

Makes 4 servings

Scale recipe to serves

Prep Time: 15 mins
Cooking Time: 45 mins
Ready in: 60 mins


Suitable for:
Dinner, Entree, Lunch, Salad
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