Grilled chicken salad recipe with mango and avocado

I was having lunch with my friend Mae yesterday and she was asking where my inspiration for the recipes I cook comes from. I said it usually had to do with what was fresh and in season, or what I had lots of in the fridge. So, I knew I wanted to cook something with avocado as I had 3 ripe ones in the fridge, but wanted to try incorporating it into a hot dish. I just couldn’t get that action going, but my eyes fell on the pile of ripe mangoes in the fruit basket. Bingo! A marriage made in heaven.  The orange scented chicken just seemed like a great bridesmaid. This grilled chicken salad recipe has the flavours of all my favourite things; lime, orange, ginger with a little whisper of honey.

Grilled Chicken Salad Recipe

Serves 4 to 6

3 chicken breasts

zest and juice of 1 juicy orange

grated thumb ginger

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp chopped thyme

2 tbsp honey

salt and pepper

few leaves of coriander for garnish

Cut the chicken breasts into slices small enough so that the marinade permeates, but big enough that grilling them won’t be a problem. Prepare the marinade and allow the chicken to swim in its loveliness for at least an hour.

Do any of you have this heavy duty cast iron grill pan that may have come with your cooker? I’ve only recently discovered mine and I now use it often. It works in a very similar way to a barbecue but with much less hassle. You just place it over the burner and let it heatright up. I’m not sure I would grill something with lots of sauce and propensity to spit as it would make the clean up so much worse. This wasn’t bad at all though. This chicken could be quickly seared in a frying pan if you can’t be faffed to light up the barbecue or fire up the grill. Just be careful not to dry it out.

My mother has a cut glass vinaigrette bottle similar to the one below (which as you can see is plain glass). My niece Jaks, when she was little and spent a lot of time with granny, used to call the vinaigrette, not the bottle, “glass hat” That terminology remains.

The mango and avocado vinaigrette

60ml lime juice (1 juicy lime)

100ml olive oil

1 fat clove garlic pressed

2 tbsp roughly chopped mint

salt and pepper

1 very slightly green mango chopped into cubes

1 perfect avocado (3 or 4 in UK) cut into cubes

Mix together all the ingredients and pour onto the awaiting fruit. Stir gently to spread as you don’t want to break up the pieces. This vinaigrette would be good on any salad.

The leaves

Whatever takes your fancy

You could use whatever salad leaves you like, and I particularly love rocket (arugula) which my friends at Plant Grow Eat produce organically here in St. Lucia. Lay out the leaves and then pile on the fruit and the chicken. The garnish of coriander was very pleasing.

There you are, one exciting new grilled chicken salad recipe!