Free-range chicken salad with quinoa, grapes, basil and verjuice
14/1/2013
A light refreshing salad that is a breeze to knock together.
Ingredients
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| 1 cup | Quinoa |
| 2 cloves | Garlic, crushed |
| 3 cups | Basil leaves, washed and picked |
| 60 ml | Olive oil |
| 4 | Free-range chicken breasts, (or one whole free-range chicken, jointed) |
| 100 ml | Extra virgin olive oil |
| 100 ml | Verjuice |
| 3 cups | Seedless grapes, halved |
| 4 cups | Baby lettuce leaves |
Directions
- Rinse quinoa with cold running water through a fine sieve. Place into a small saucepan with 2 cups of water and bring to the boil over a high heat.
- Turn off heat and placelid on pot and allow to steam for 20 to 30 minutes or until tender. Reserve for further use.
- Heat oven to 200 degC. Place half a teaspoon of salt, half of the garlic and half a cup of basil into a mortar and grind to a paste.
- Add 30ml olive oil and mix in. Spread paste under skin of the chicken and season chicken with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
- Place skin side down into a hot, heavy-based, ovenproof frying pan with the remaining 30ml of olive oil.
- Fry until skin turns a golden brown then place into oven and roast for 5 to 6 minutes or until almost cooked.
- Carefully remove from oven and allow to rest, skin side up. The heat remaining in the frying pan will continue the cooking process.
- In a separate saucepan, gently warm extra virgin olive oilover a medium heat.
- Add remaining garlic and cook for30 seconds without colouring before adding verjuice andgrapes. Remove from heat and add any resting juices from the chicken to the pan.
- Place lettuce and basil into a large bowl with quinoa. Carve chicken and add to the bowl with the lettuce basil and quinoa.
- Toss together with the verjuice and grape dressing, season to taste and divide between 4 plates. Serve immediately.
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