satay

tea poached asian chicken salad

This salad embodies two of my favourite things, crunch and Asian flavours. It’s fresh and healthy and the poached chicken its just so juicy! I've always wondered how patient a chef is to julienne vegetables but to be honest, with the invention of a peeler that julienne’s that fascination has disappeared. I can how ever confirm that it is a lot of fun grabbing your veg and slicing them into tiny perfect strips for this salad. 

The dressing for this salad takes me straight to Thailand. I can picture myself standing in the street food markets in Kopanghan dunking my chicken satay into the sauce. Some of the best memories of my life were had in Thai food markets. Perhaps that’s why this salad has such a special place in my recipe heart. We hired a scooter and whenever we wanted, nipped to different parts of the island we were on. After feeding an elephant a few bananas we stumbled across this amazing little food court, out in the open, where all the locals got their fill. From fresh sushi, chicken satay’s and fruit shakes this place was like mecca. I'm very open to the fact that I might of ate myself into a food coma that day but I can assure you that it was worth every. Single. Bite. 

serves: 2

Ingredients:

  • lapsang suchong tea
  • 2 chicken fillets
  • 1 carrot, finely sliced on the length
  • small handful of fine green beans
  • 1 cup red cabbage, finely sliced
  • 4 radishes, thinly sliced
  • 1 cup coriander leaves
  • 1 cup thinly sliced cucumber
  • ½ cup pumpkin seeds, roasted
  • ¼ cup toasted sesame seeds

Asian dressing:

  • 3 tblsp soy sauce
  • 1 tsp grated ginger
  • ½ tsp garlic, finely chopped
  • 1/3 cup lime juice
  • 2 tblsp honey
  • 1 tblsp mint, finely chopped
  • ½ cup olive oil or sesame oil
  • salt and pepper

Instructions:

Bring 500ml water with tea to the boil in a saucepan. I usually use a small strainer and fill that with the tealeaves, and just put in straight into the water. Add your chicken fillets and simmer for 12mins. You can turn the chicken around at the 6-minute mark. Remove and let cool.  Once cool slice chicken and toss with the rest of the ingredients (that you have julienned by knife or by slicer) and dressing, season with salt and pepper and plate.

Asian dressing:

Blend all the ingredients together and season to taste. 

Serve on a hot summers day with some fresh infused waters! 

-Melissa