Jan 24 2012

RECIPES BY GOURMANTINE

Trip to indulgence: Caramelized chicken and mandarin salad

It is said, food can inspire, put one at ease and even elevate, or at least it has always been the case for me. When thinking of food that could bring such comfort, treats essentially made out chocolate, caramel and perhaps topped with a little dollop of cream for an extra sweet touch, would be the first to come to mind.

A humble dish like a salad would rarely or even never be named as particularly indulgent, but rather something to serve for quick passing lunch, yet when I was thinking of a dish to post for here, I kept coming back to this delight. However, it’s not the sweet and savory nature of this dish that I keep finding irresistible but rather the fact that it kicked off my interest to dive in the fascinating world of cooking.

This recipe brings together everything that could be considered vital for a salad or a full meal: it’s filling, fresh, fruity and even has the sweetness of the caramelized chicken – to indulge anyone with a sweet tooth. The dressing in this recipe has a rather intimidating list of ingredients and one may find it tempting to skip an ingredient or two to make matters more simple, but here’s the deal: a dressing on the salad is the glue that binds all the flavors together and makes each shine in it’s own way. In other words, it either makes or breaks the dish and skipping any ingredient may offset the balance of flavors in the dressing and then it’s off to the trash bin.

If that seems far too fussy to make than a simple extra virgin olive oil (quality is everything) with balsamic vinegar will be fine. If, however, extra 20 minutes of work is not too intimidating, then you may just end up with balsamic-citrus vinaigrette that both freshens up against the sweetness of the chicken and provides more complexity and variety to the overall flavor.

Ingredients (serves 2)
For the caramelized chicken
2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
½ lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and freshly grounded pepper
3-4 tablespoons brown sugar
For the salad
3 mandarins or clementines
1 avocado
2 small tomatoes
80g mixed salad
For the dressing
100ml balsamic vinegar
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/2 small shallot
1 small branch thyme
1 small branch rosemary
1 branch parsley
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1/2 lemon juice
1 tablespoon fresh mandarin juice (from cutting segments)
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
salt and freshly grounded pepper
a few basil leaves, chopped

For the caramelized chicken, cut the chicken in stripes about the size of half a finger, mix with lemon juice and olive oil, season with salt and pepper and set to marinate for about 15-30 minutes or more.

When ready, heat a pan till very hot, add the chicken and cook stirring around for 3-5 minutes. Add the sugar and stir to coat. Let it caramelize for a 3-4 minutes on high heat, stirring occasionally, to be sure the coat the chicken evenly.

For the salad, segment the mandarins, by slicing of the top and bottom. Place it on the cutting board and hold well cut the zest of the sides revealing the segments. Then take it in the palm of your hand, make incisions on both sides of each segment, and they will fall out. Working with such small citruses can be a bit messy, but it is worth wile the effort for a cleaner presentation.

To make the dressing, in a sauce pan heat few drops of olive oil and cook the garlic and shallot for a few minutes, add the herbs (except the basil), balsamic vinegar and simmer till reduced by 2/3. Stir in the sugar, take of the heat and strain through a sieve. Pour in the lemon and mandarin juices, season with salt and pepper. Slowly add the oil, stirring all the time until you have a homogenous dressing. Just before serving stir in the chopped basil.
Dice the avocado, tomato and toss them with the salad and the mandarin segments, divide between plates. Top the salad with caramelized chicken, drizzle the caramel from the pan, and spoon the dressing on top.