This is the best salad I’ve ever made. Did I say that yesterday?! If I did I didn’t know any better. Or maybe this is the best chicken I’ve ever made? No, it’s the salad. Fresh, crisp lettuce, creamy avocado, decadent Parmesan dressing and that crispy crunchy chicken.

There’s a few things that make the chicken amazing.
1. The almond and chickpea flour coating – its flavoursome gives great crispy crunch and is full of good for you things.
2. The ratio of chicken to coating – heavy on the crispy crunchy stuff baby.
3. Finishing it in the oven so it’s perfectly golden on the outside and still juicy on the inside

I will be making this chicken again and doing other delicious things with it. Watch this space.

Now back to the salad. Actually let’s talk about the dressing. It’s so simple, Parmesan, lemon olive oil and parsley. And it gives loads of flavour. It’s actually also good tossed through warm pasta with a little broccoli for a super easy meal.

Speaking of easy the salad is super simple, just a few ingredients that balance everything out and will fill you up(thanks chick peas), because the chicken and the dressing need some space to shine.

Serves 2-4

Ingredients

Chicken

1 chicken breast
1/2 cup chickpea flour + 2 Tbs
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper
1 egg
1 1/3 cup almonds
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan
2 Tbs finely chopped parsley
2 Tbs Olive oil

Dressing
1 cup Parmesan
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
1/4 cup olive oil
2 Tbs finely chopped parsley
Salt and pepper

Salad
1 baby cos lettuce, shredded
1/2 cup canned chickpeas
1/2 cup quartered cherry tomatoes
1/2 an avocado, chopped into bite sized chunks
2/3 cup cucumber chopped into 1-2cm chunks
1/4 cup finely chopped spring onion

Directions

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius.

Using a heavy object, beat chicken breast until .5cm thick. Slice into 5 pieces.
Place egg in one bowl and beat lightly. In another bowl combine 1/2 cup chickpea flour, cayenne pepper and ass salt and pepper.

Use a food processor to process almonds until they resemble coarse almond meal. In a 3rd bowl combine the almond meal, extra chickpea flour, Parmesan and parsley.

Coat each chicken strip in the chickpea flour mix, dunk in egg and then coat well in almond mixture. Lay on a tray and repeat until all chicken pieces are coated.

Heat oil in a heavy based fry pan on medium high heat. Place chicken strips in the pan and fry for 2-3 minutes until lightly coloured and turn. Fry for a further 2-3minutes then remove and place on a rack in the oven. Cook for 15 minutes at 180 degrees.

Meanwhile combine dressing ingredients in a food processor and process until creamy and well combined. Check seasoning.

Combine salad ingredients in a bowl or platter, drizzle over Parmesan dressing. Slice chicken and place on top. Dig in to the crunchy goodness!

HH. x