This Thai Chicken Mango Salad dish is light, clean, tasty – everything you want from a salad. It can be served as first course, or a main course. It was Kathy Jarmer’s favourite. She used to come into the kitchen and ask me if there was any of the Thai chicken marinating in the fridge. She would remind me, every time: “Be careful, don’t burn it.” I was the apprentice, of course she always reminded me.
Thai Chicken Mango Salad
Serves 4
INGREDIENTS
For the marinade
3 stalks lemongrass, trimmed and sliced
1 bunch coriander, stalks trimmed, rinsed well and dried
100 ml fish sauce
100 ml sweet chilli sauce
2 tb chilli jam
3 tb ketjap manis
3 tb low salt soy
1 tb black peppercorns, crushed
75 grams sugar
1 walnut-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and julienned
For the salad
1 kg boneless chicken thighs
1 mango, peeled and cut into cubes
Mixed washed and dried leaves (iceberg, coral, tatsoi, oakleaf)
Coriander leaves, fried shallots and Vietnamese mint notes
** The quantity of marinade is sufficient for a kilo of chicken, or more. Use boneless thigh fillets. Any leftover chicken is good cold. It makes a good sandwich.
METHOD
For the marinade
1 Chop the coriander and mix well with all the other ingredients.
2 Marinate the chicken for three to four hours.
For the salad
1 Grill the chicken gently. When it is cooked through, and its edges charring a little, place on a board and slice each portion into four or five slices.
2 Dress with the shallot, soy and mirin dressing.
3 Mix together the lettuces, add the chicken pieces and the mango. Finish with coriander and mint, and scatter over the fried shallots.
The Carousel thanks Scott Pickett for this recipe from his book A Cook’s Story which can be purchased now from certain book stores and online.
