Warm salad of chipotle-griddled chicken, chorizo and quinoa with lime crème fraîche
A wonderful big, sprawling dish, good for a lunch as everything can be served at room temperature. You can extend it by adding black beans to the grains. Offer crumbled cheese – feta or Wensleydale – on the side.
Don’t be put off by the length of the recipe: the dish is made up of a few components, but each is easy.
Ingrediënten
FOR THE CHICKEN
- 4 skinless boneless chicken thighs
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp chipotle paste
- juice of 1 lime plus juice of ½
FOR THE ROAST TOMATOES
- 8 plum tomatoes
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- ½ tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 3 tsp harissa paste
- 1 tsp caster sugar
- salt and pepper
FOR THE REST
- 200 g 7oz quinoa (mixed colours if possible)
- 2 small avocados
- juice of 3 limes
- 250 g 9oz chorizo
- ½ tbsp olive oil
- 25 g 1oz baby spinach leaves
- 6 spring onions chopped
- 15 g ½oz coriander, chopped
- ½ tbsp white balsamic vinegar
- 6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
FOR THE CRÈME FRAÎCHE
- 200 g pot of crème fraîche
- finely grated zest of 1 lime
Instructies
- With a very sharp knife, make little slits in the chicken thighs on both sides.
- Rub with the olive oil, chipotle paste and juice of 1 lime.
- Cover and leave in the fridge overnight, or for a couple of hours.
- Bring it to room temperature before cooking.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas mark 6.
- Halve the tomatoes and put them in a single layer in a small roasting tin.
- Mix the olive oil, balsamic, cumin and harissa and pour it over.
- Turn the tomatoes over to coat.
- Leave cut side up.
- Sprinkle with the sugar and season.
- Roast in the oven for 40 minutes, or until caramelized in patches and slightly shrunken.
- Toast the quinoa in a dry frying pan for a couple of minutes, then put it into a saucepan and add enough water to cover.
- Bring to the boil then reduce the heat a little, cover and cook for 15 minutes.
- Cut the avocados in half and remove the stones.
- Cut into slices lengthways, then carefully peel the skin off each slice.
- Season and squeeze over the juice of one of the limes.
- Heat a griddle pan until it is really hot and put the chicken on it.
- Let it sizzle for two minutes.
- Turn and cook for another two minutes.
- Reduce the heat and cook until done all the way through, another four or five minutes.
- Slice and keep warm (just put them back on the griddle and cover).
- Cut the chorizo into rounds and sauté in the ½ tbsp of olive oil in a pan for about four minutes, until golden brown and cooked through.
- Fork the quinoa, season it assertively and put it into a large broad, flat serving dish.
- Gently mix in the chorizo, chicken, baby spinach, spring onions, coriander, avocado, the juice of the other two limes, the white balsamic and the extra virgin olive oil.
- Dot the roast tomatoes in among everything else.
- For the lime crème fraiche, mix the ingredients with the juice of ½ lime.
- Serve with the quinoa.
