Torn Chicken & Avocado Salad

Almost all of this week’s meals came from a single roast chicken, slow roasted upside down in a foil tent for extra moist meat that fell off the bones. The featured recipe was Sunday’s supper using the chicken still warm from the oven; Monday was a chicken & bacon Caesar salad; Wednesday saw us enjoying  a chicken, broccoli & cashew nut stir fry with a mango sauce, with just enough meat left for a couple of chicken pasties for the weekend. I’m sharing today’s recipe because it’s Blondie’s favourite salad and it might just encourage her into making it for herself. And also because it’s delicious and very healthy, obviously. The recipe is one of my favourite ‘guesstimate’ ones, where you simply use as much or as little of each ingredient as you prefer, depending on how many you’re feeding.

Ingredients:

Warm roasted chicken, torn into bite size pieces

Mixed salad leaves

Avocado, cut into bite size chunks

Sun dried tomatoes, sliced

Fresh tomatoes, cut into bite size chunks

A good handful of pine nuts

Smoked bacon or pancetta, diced

Dressing:

Olive oil

White Balsamic vinegar

Dijon mustard

Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Method:

Toast the pine nuts under a hot grill until lightly browned ( watch them like  hawk or you’ll end up with burn nuggets  of charcoal like I did).

Heat a small frying pan and cook the bacon/ pancetta until it renders its fat and starts to crisp. Drain on some kitchen roll and set aside.

Combine the dressing ingredients (3 tbsp oil to 1 tbsp vinegar, 1/2 tsp mustard, seasoning) and whisk well. How much dressing you make depends on how much you like it. I find too much makes the salad soggy and spoils the effect).

In a large bowl, combine the chicken, bacon, tomatoes, leaves and avocado. Drizzle over a little dressing and sprinkle over the pine nuts. Serve the rest of the dressing on the side.