Valentine Warner's spring chicken salad
- Preparation and cooking time
- Total time
- A little effort
- Serves 4
Skip to ingredients
Ingredients
- 2 skinless chicken breasts
- 100ml white wine
- 1 small onion, halved
- 3-4 sprigs thyme
- 1 bay leaf
- 6 black peppercorns
- 150g small broad beans, podded
- 16 baby carrots, trimmed
- 1 small bulb fennel, trimmed
- a small handful chives, trimmed
- 5-6 sprigs tarragon, leaves stripped
- 1 level tbsp small capers, drained
- handful curly parsley, roughly chopped
vinaigrette
- 2 good tsp white wine vinegar
- ⅓ lemon, squeezed
- 1 clove new season’s garlic
- 2 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1½ tsp golden caster sugar
- ½ tsp flaked sea salt
- 3 tbsp olive oil
Method
- STEP 1
Put the chicken breasts in a saucepan and pour over the wine. Add 200ml cold water, the onion, thyme, bay leaf and peppercorns. Cook over a moderate heat, cover and bring to a gentle simmer. Poach the chicken for 10 minutes.
- STEP 2
Strain the chicken and liquor through a fine sieve, reserving the stock. Set the chicken on a board to cool and pour the stock into a clean pan. Bring to the boil, drop in the podded beans, return to the boil and cook for 2 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and refresh in a sieve under running water until cold before draining them. Cook the carrots in the stock for 5 minutes. Refresh and drain them.
- STEP 3
Squeeze all the beans out of their skins and put in a large serving bowl. Add the carrots. Cut the fennel into wafer-thin slices. Add to the bowl along with the whole chives, tarragon and capers. Scatter in the parsley.
- STEP 4
Tear the chicken into long shreds and scatter over the salad. Whisk together all the vinaigrette ingredients, except the oil, with some black pepper in a small bowl. Whisk in the oil bit by bit until thickened. Season the salad, then drizzle over the vinaigrette and toss lightly before serving.
