Chicken Pineapple salad is a fresh, healthy and fruity, low calorie meal with Thai-inspired flavours. Blanching the chillies keeps all the flavour but removes some of the stinging heat. It makes your skin glow too. These are the words of Chef Miyonse on Friday during the #WakeupNigeria show.
Ingredients
- 100g green beans, topped
- 3 skinless chicken breasts
- 1 small pineapple
- 1 tbsp groundnut oil
- small bunch mint
, leaves picked
- ½ small bunch coriander, leaves picked
- 100g beansprouts
- 50g honey-roasted peanuts, roughly chopped
- 150g cherry tomatoes, halved
For the dressing
- 3 red bird’s-eye chillies, deseeded and roughly chopped
- 1 tbsp palm sugar or soft light brown sugar
- 2 garlic cloves
- ½ small bunch coriander, roughly chopped
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
2 limes
, zested and juiced
- 1 tbsp groundnut oil
Method
- Bring a saucepan of salted water to the boil. Add the beans, cook for 30 secs, then scoop out with a slotted spoon and plunge straight into cold water. Bring the water back to the boil, add the chicken breasts, then reduce the heat to a gentle bubble. After 3 mins, remove the pan from the heat but leave the chicken to continue poaching for 10 mins. Check the chicken is cooked through, then drain or poach for a few mins more if necessary.
- Peel the pineapple and cut through the core into quarters. Cut out and discard the core, then thinly slice. Heat a griddle pan until very hot. Brush the pineapple slices with a little oil and cook for 1-2 mins each side until charred and just starting to soften. Transfer to a plate.
- For the dressing, put the chillies in a small bowl, cover with kettle-hot water and set aside for 5 mins. Put the sugar, garlic and coriander in a mortar and pound to a paste with a pestle. Drain the chilli, add to the mortar, then pound again. Stir in the remaining dressing ingredients and taste to make sure you have a good balance of hot, sweet, sour and salty – adjust with more chilli, sugar, lime or sh sauce, if you like.
- Shred the chicken and pile onto a platter with the remaining salad ingredients. Drizzle with the dressing and toss together just before serving.
