Healthy Eating Poached Chicken Salad Recipe

It's the dressing that really makes this healthy chicken salad recipe come alive. Without the dressing this salad, like many others, can be a bit bland, which won't do, as one of the main rules I have when it comes to healthy eating is that under no circumstances will I compromise on flavour.

Second, I won't go near any 'low fat' products where the fat has been replaced by artificial products or just made up with substitutes. My view is if you want chocolate cake have the real deal ~ just don't have it very often so when you do it's a treat.

Back to the Chicken Salad then.

This recipe uses poached chicken fillets. Poaching chicken in water is a great way to cook it, as it keeps it very moist, is very healthy as it uses no fat, and, by adding additional flavours such as lemon juice or herbs to the water is a good way to infuse additional flavours into the chicken.

 These are just suggestions - you can add any other salad type ingredients you like.

1 large or 3 mini chicken fillets per person

Mixed Salad Leaves

Sliced Spring Onions

Strips of Cucumber

Ingredients for the Salad Dressing: makes enough dressing for 4

Large hand full of Coriander / Cilantro

1" piece of fresh ginger, roughly chopped

1 de-seeded red chili (chili is a very personal thing so add as much or as little as you like)

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon natural yogurt (if you're not quite so calorie conscious you can use mayonnaise instead of natural yogurt - this gives a more luxurious quality to the dressing and is better if using it as a dipping sauce)

To Poach the Chicken

In a large saucepan or frying pan bring a couple of inches of water to simmering point ~ it needs to be enough water to just cover the chicken. You can also add additional flavourings to the water i.e. herbs or lemon juice to infuse the chicken.

Place the chicken fillets into the water and simmer them until cooked ~ this could be anything from 10 mins for thin mini fillets to 25 mins for a large thick chicken fillet (if you want extra flavour in the chicken it can be marinaded before hand in lemon or lime juice)

Once cooked leave the chicken to cool then slice ready for the salad.

For the Salad Dressing:

Place all the ingredients in a food processor and wizz together until fine.

Place the salad leaves and other salad componants in a bowl, layer the sliced chicken on top and drizzle with the salad dressing.

As well as being a healthy salad dressing the mix also makes a great dipping sauce.

Due to its spicy nature it goes perfectly with cold foods such as prawns, or slices of raw carrot and cucumber.

It can also be used as a marinade for chicken and other meats - simply score the meat with a sharp knife and rub in a couple of spoonfuls of the mixture - leave for at least 30 mins before cooking.