Guest Recipe: Roast chicken and quinoa salad with coronation crème fraiche
This roast Sutton Hoo Chicken quinoa salad by Katy & Joey Cook is seriously satisfying and delicious. The fresh herbs and lemon juice in the quinoa perfectly contrast the creamy, gently spiced coronation crème fraiche. A gentle sweetness comes from the dried apricots, and some toasted flaked almonds add a lovely nutty bite. Delicious!
Prep time: 20 mins
Cooking time: approx. 20-30 minutes
This recipes serves: 4 people
Ingredients for the quinoa salad
200 g quinoa
approx 1 cup leftover roast chicken
2 tbsp flaked almonds or pine nuts
12 apricots
4 spring onions
25 g flat leaf parsley
25 g coriander
25 g mint
2 tbsp olive oil
1 lemon, juice & zest
flakey sea salt
Ingredients for the coronation crème fraîche
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion
1 small thumb ginger
1 clove garlic
2 tsp mild curry powder
½ tsp flakey sea salt
4 tbsp crème fraîche
1 tbsp mayonnaise
1 tbsp apricot jam
1 tbsp lemon juice
Method
Start by preparing the creme fraiche. Dice the onion as finely as possible, and mince the garlic and ginger.
Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in your smallest frying pan and very gently fry the diced onion for 8 minutes, stirring often.
After 8 minutes add the ginger, garlic, curry powder and sea salt and fry for a further 4 minutes, stirring often to prevent things catching. Add another teaspoon of oil if needs be. After 4 minutes allow this to cool.
Once cool, tip your onions etc into a small blender along with the crème fraîche, mayonnaise, apricot jam and lemon juice. Whizz until smooth.
For the quinoa salad, bring the quinoa to simmer in a saucepan of salted water, and simmer gently for 15-18 minutes, or until you can see the grain uncoil slightly. Drain and allow the steam to billow off well.
Meanwhile, dry toast the flaked almonds or pine nuts in a moderate oven (160 C) for 4-6 minutes, or until golden; alternatively dry toast these in a small frying pan but stir often and watch like a hawk.
Chop the dried apricots in small pieces, finely slice the spring onions, and chop the herbs - be sure to include the stalk of the parsley and coriander.
Toss the cooked and cooled quinoa with the leftover chicken, flaked almonds, apricots, spring onions and herbs, then dress and toss with olive oil, lemon juice, zest and a pinch of salt.
If you fancy extra greens, serve this quinoa on a bed of salad leaves, then spoon over your creamy coronation creme fraiche and enjoy. A final drizzle of olive oil and a squeeze of lemon is always a great final touch to brighten all the beautiful flavours.
You can find more delicious recipes by Joey & Katy on their website here or follow them on Instagram for inspirational mouthwatering dishes @joeyandkatycook
This recipe is perfect for using up leftover chicken. Why not try our 3 meal challenge? Find out more here.