Grilled chicken & chicory salad with candied pecans
When the warmer weather arrives we often crave lighter dishes and this grilled salad hits the spot while delivering big flavours. The bitter chicory, salty feta, and sweet, hot and spicy pecans provide a great mix of taste and texture and elevate good old chicken thighs to something special. We can’t wait to scale this up to serve the whole family once we’re allowed!
Ingredients
Serves 4
6 boneless chicken thighs
2 onions, chopped into chunks
3 heads of chicory, quartered
100g feta cheese
1 tbsp rapeseed oil
Juice of 1 lemon
4 tbsp garlic oil (we use Mrs Middleton’s)
2 tbsp tahini
4 generous pinches of sea salt
2 tbsp maple syrup (1 tbsp for dressing and 1 tbsp for the pecans)
75g pecan nuts
1 pinch of smoked sea salt
1 pinch cayenne pepper
1 pinch Korean red pepper flakes or chilli flakes
Chopped parsley
Good quality olive oil or a flavoured oil of your choice (we used Mrs Middleton’s basil oil)
Method
1. Coat the chicken in a tablespoon of rapeseed oil and season with a couple pinches of sea salt.
2. Grill the onions until charred, followed by the chicken, then chicory.
3. Mix lemon juice, garlic oil, tahini and half the maple syrup with the remaining sea salt
4. Heat a frying pan, add pecans, a tablespoon of maple syrup, smoked sea salt and cayenne pepper. Stir until coated and caramelised.
5. Lay the chicory and onions on a plate, top with sliced chicken and crumbled feta.
6. Drizzle over the dressing and garnish with chopped parsley, a pinch of red pepper flakes & a splash of oil.