Tahini Chicken Salad
The silky creamy tahini sauce makes this salad a luxurious but super-nutritious weeknight supper. It’s inspired by the Lebanese sandwich, Shish Tawook.
Tahini Chicken Salad
Serves 2
Takes 15-30 minutes
2 Chicken breasts
Handful of shredded red cabbage
Handful of rocket
Bunch of coriander leaves
3 tablespoons tahina paste
Juice of half a lemon
Zest of a whole lemon
2 tablespoons of toasted pine nuts
Method
Poach the chicken breasts. There are several ways to do this but the overarching principles are don’t cook it for too long or it will become grey and stringy and keep the skin on while cooking from drying out and hold its form better. If you are a fan of chicken skin then you can sear the breast skin-down with a little salt on a hot pan after to crisp it up just before serving. I sous-vide the breasts at 65.6C for 1 hour. I use the Anova, which works perfectly every time.
While the chicken is cooking, get your cabbage, rocket and coriander leaves prepped and laid out on a dish, toss in a little olive oil and salt.
To make the tahina sauce, slowly whisk 6-8 tablespoons of warm water (or better still the poaching liquor) into the tahina. Season and add the lemon juice - the sauce should be shiny and white.
To serve, simply lay the sliced chicken breasts on top of the salad and cover with the sauce, grate over some lemon zest and top with pine nuts.