Thai Style Chicken Salad

Ingredients

Salad

• 2 chicken breasts
• 12 white peppercorns
• 2 slices of lemon
• 4 coriander roots, scraped
• 50ml fish sauce
• 1 punnet cherry tomatoes
• 2 carrots, peeled
• 1 inch piece ginger, julienned
• 2 cucumbers
• 1 celery heart, sliced
• 1 bunch coriander, picked
• 1 bunch of spring onion, sliced
• 200g snow peas
• 1 bunch mint, picked
• 1 red onion, sliced

Dressing

• 2 cloves garlic
• pinch of sea salt
• 2 long red chillies
• 2 green chillies
• 50g sugar
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• 2 tbsp lime juice
• 4 coriander roots, scrapped
• 8 white peppercorns
  
  

Method

Place the chicken breasts in a saucepan and cover with water. Add peppercorns, coriander root, 1 spring onion, lemon and fish sauce. Bring to the boil, simmer for 5 minutes and turn off. Allow to cool in the liquid. Once cool, shred by pulling apart with your fingers. In a large bowl, using a peeler, shave the carrot into long thin strips. Cut the cucumber into quarters lengthways and cut away the seeds. Cut into 4mm pieces on the diagonal. Add the remaining ingredients, including the chicken, and lightly toss together. Add as much dressing as you need to flavour the salad, and mix well. It should take most of the dressing.

Dressing

lace peppercorns in a mortar and crush. Add garlic cloves and a pinch of salt. Crush until smooth. Add the coriander root and pound until it starts to break down. Add chillies (with seeds in if you like it hot) and keep pounding. Add sugar, fish sauce and lime juice, add a few spoons of water for consistency. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed, with more sugar, lime juice and fish sauce. This dressing should be hot, salty, sour and sweet.