Smoky Chicken with warm corn & potato salad

This is one of those "disgustingly good for you" recipes that I was talking to Marcus about in the previous post's comments.

However, not only is it disgustingly good for you, it is quite simply delicious.

The original recipe (from a BBC Good Food Magazine, but you can see it on the website as well) states that per portion, this meal is only 343 calories.  Now add a little extra for the salad leaves that I included to make it a bit more of a main course and less of a lunch and it is still extraordinarily healthy.

It is a funny thing, but up until very recently I really didn't like smoked paprika very much at all.  Then, after a period of not having the "good stuff" and making do with a lesser grade of smoked paprika, we got a tin of the proper thing again - and bingo! I like it.  Weird.

However, for this recipe, it stated that sweet smoked paprika was required.  Well we couldn't find any of that for love nor money around here, so I improvised by using a half a teaspoon of the hot smoked and half a teaspoon of just plain paprika.  It tasted fabulous, so obviously worked fine!

Have I told you, recently, how much I love this griddle pan?

Another area where I made a change to the original recipe was in its use of olive oil.  It stated to use just "olive oil", but I felt that a distinction between plain old olive oil (suitable for frying etc.) and extra virgin olive oil (better for salad dressings, as it has a much better flavour) would be a help.  So I used plain old olive oil for the chicken coating, as it is cheaper and more suited to being used in a hot environment.  The more expensive extra virgin olive oil, I saved for the salad dressing.

The Jersey Royals were just perfect for this salad.  Unfortunately, I had to quarter them in most cases as they were so big.  However, this didn't seem to make any difference and the flavour appeared to be just the same.  I only wish I'd have thought to add a little sprig of mint in the cooking water!

Considering how simple the ingredients and their cooking methods are, this is a quite outstanding dish both for flavour and appearance.  I was extremely pleased by how it looked on the plate - and it certainly made son & heir's eyebrows disappear into his hairline, which I can only think was a good thing.  He ate everything except the salad leaves which took dire threats of no ice cream for dessert to make disappear - but then, we can put that down to his natural resistance to anything green, rather than the flavour!

For anyone looking for an extra-light meal that delivers on just about every front possible, this is definitely a winner.

SMOKY CHICKEN WITH WARM CORN & POTATO SALAD  (serves 3)

Ingredients :

Enough Jersey Royal potatoes for 3 people (I quartered mine, as they were so big)
2 large Corn on the cob
a mint sprig (optional - to go in the cooking water)
a small red onion, thinly sliced
juice of 1 lime
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed and chopped finely
half a tsp hot smoked paprika
half a tsp paprika
3 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, each cut through to make two thin escalopes
small bunch of coriander leaves, chopped
salad leaves (I used spinach, watercress & rocket).

Method :

1.  Bring to the boil a saucepan of salted water big enough to hold all the potatoes and corn.

2.  While you wait for the water to boil, in a salad bowl mix together the red onion with the lime juice and the extra virgin olive oil.

3.  In a smaller bowl, mix the plain olive oil with the garlic, paprika and some seasoning.  Add the chicken and stir until each piece of chicken is completely coated in the mixture.

4.  Add the potatoes and corn cobs to the boiling water and cook until both are tender, making sure that the potatoes are cooked all the way through.  Drain well and keep warm.

5.  Heat a griddle pan and griddle each piece of chicken for 3-4 minutes on each side, until cooked through.  You will probably need to do this in batches, to save overcrowding the pan, which will cool it too much and result in your chicken braising instead of griddling.

6.  Once the chicken is done, add the potatoes to the bowl with the onions.  Take the corn cobs and cut the niblets off them by standing each cob on its thick end and running a sharp knife down from top to bottom.  Add the corn to the potatoes.  

7.  Add the chopped coriander to the corn, along with a little seasoning, and stir through gently, so as not to break up the potatoes.

8.  Serve the potato mixture on top of a bed of salad leaves, placing the chicken pieces on top of the lot.

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