Curried Chicken Salad

Things have been crazy busy in my household this week. With back to school to organise as well as prepare for a family get together this coming weekend, things have been been pretty fraught.

But, I'm getting through everything now and wanted to share this recipe with you.
With our 'India Summer' well under way I was looking to put together a light lunch that wouldn't keep me in the kitchen for long.

I was able to cook the chicken the night before, which left me more time for the garden when it came to serving.
I served it with a crisp white wine, I'm biased towards new Zealands Sauvignon Blancs, warm crusty baguettes and lots of salad.
Unfortunately I was so busy eating and chatting I forgot to take a picture and rather than not putting the recipe up I found this picture here courtesy of www.cookinglight.com

Ingredients:

Serves 6
4 large chicken breasts
Salt & Fresh ground black pepper
240ml (2 cups) water
2 tbsp olive oil
3 fresh rosemary sprigs
60ml (1/3 cup) dry white wine
2 tbsps (1/4 cup) mayonnaise
2 tbsps (1/4 cup) plain non fat yogurt
3 tbsps (1/3 cup) creme fraiche or sour cream
1 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
3 celery sticks, finely chopped
1/2 small white onion finely chopped
2 tbsps (1/4 cup) chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 tbsps (1/4 cup) coarsely chopped cashews (optional)

Method:

Poach chicken in pot with the water, wine and rosemary for approx 8 minutes until just cooked. You can fry it in a pan, but poaching the chicken for this recipe ensures it retains its tenderness and doesn’t dry out.
When cooked, remove from liquid, let it cool and chop into bite sizes pieces.
(You can do this the day before you need it. Keep refrigerated and uncut until constructing salad).
In a bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, yogurt, crème fraîche, cumin, cayenne, turmeric,
1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper.
Add the bite sized chicken, celery, onion, chopped parsley and nuts (if using).
Turn to coat with the mayonnaise mixture.
Serve with your choice of salad leaves.
However, as my favouriye salad is rocket and spinsch i'd recommend taht. I have taken to using a mild spinach in all my salads. See note below as to why!


Note: Spinach is rich in lutein and beta-carotene, two important anti oxidants with cancer fighting properties. This tasty leafy green vegetable is also loaded with magnesium, manganese, vitamin K and folic acid