This Thai Chicken Salad is delicious, easy to make and super healthy. The honey drizzled cashews add a touch of extra yumminess as well as even more goodness.
Last week I shared my review of Madeleine Shaw’s latest book Ready Steady Glow – a wonderful book full of delicious, healthy recipes that are easy to make and fit into real people’s real lives. This week I really want to share with you a couple of my favourite recipes from that book. Today I am sharing her delicious Thai Chicken Salad, with a couple of my own little twists. And on Thursday I will be sharing her amazing Beetroot, Kale and Orange Salad.
I was totally blown away by this delicious chicken salad. The flavours work so well and it is so full of goodness from the chicken, turmeric, chilli, sugar snap peas and cashew nuts. To add a bit of extra goodness and deliciousness I have added in some avocado and to make the nuts really extra scrumptious, I add a drizzle of honey after I have toasted them, which just makes them taste amazing.
This salad is really adaptable. It would be a great one for using leftover roast chicken – making this salad even quicker and easier to do – fabulous for a quick Monday evening meal. It would also work really well as a veggie version – substitute extra avocado and nuts for the chicken. It is naturally gluten free and dairy free making it a great option for a buffet.
If you can’t quite cope with the idea of no carbs, you could serve this salad with some bread or rice, but really I found it quite filling on its own and any sort of accompaniment didn’t really feel necessary…except a glass of wine of course! A dry Riesling or an aromatic Sauvignon Blanc would work really well with this dish.
Thai Chicken Salad with Honey Drizzled Cashews
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons turmeric
- 1 red chilli finely chopped, plus extra for garnish
- 2 cm ginger finely grated
- Zest and juice of 2 limes
- Salt to taste
- 4 small chicken breasts
- 100 g cashew nuts
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 little gem lettuces shredded
- 4 spring onions finely sliced
- 200 g sugar snap peas cut in half
- 2 avocados cut into thick slices
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- Basil leaves for scattering
Method
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Mix together the turmeric, chilli, ginger, lime zest and a little salt in a bowl. Add the chicken breasts and rub the spice mix all over the chicken breasts so they are well coated.
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Heat up a griddle pan on high for 1 minute. Add the chicken and fry for 3 minutes on the first side, until nicely charred. Flip the chicken over and then turn the griddle down. Cook for 6 minutes on the second side or until the chicken is completely cooked through.
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Remove the chicken from the griddle pan and put on a plate to rest. Then slice or shred the chicken when cool enough to handle.
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While you are cooking the chicken, put a small frying pan over a medium heat and add the cashew nuts. Cook gently until the nuts are brown on both sides. Drizzle over the honey and allow it to bubble for a few seconds then turn off the heat. Tip the nuts onto a plate or they will weld themselves to the pan – you have been warned 😉
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Once the chicken and the cashew nuts are ready you can start to assemble the salad: first scatter the prepared lettuce, sugar snap peas and spring onions on a serving platter. Next add the sliced avocado and chicken. Top with the cashew nuts, extra chilli and basil.
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Finally mix the olive oil, lime juice and a little salt in a little bowl or jam jar and drizzle over the salad. Serve the salad just as it is, or with warm crusty bread, pittas or flatbreads and a glass of aromatic white wine.
Pin Thai Chicken Salad with Honey Drizzled Cashews for later
I am linking this up to Cook Blog Share, Tasty Tuesdays and Recipe of the Week.
I usually find Salads really boring, mainly as I don’t put enough effort into them. Now this sounds anything but boring! #cookblogshare
Haha – yes Louise. I totally agree – this salad is definitely NOT boring. It is ridiculously delicious, packed full of interesting flavours and very moreish. It was clean plates all round! Thanks for your kind comments 🙂 Eb x
Delicious! I adore Thai food and this looks like such a delicious summer dish, fingers crossed for some good weather in which to enjoy it now!
Thanks Cliona, yes indeed – all fingers and toes crossed for some lovely sunny salad weather. Though, if we don’t get any, I think I will just eat salads in protest until we do! That’ll work won’t it?!? Eb x
What a delicious salad Eb, I love Thai flavours & with those honey drizzled cashews, yum! x
Thank you, Sarah. It’s a fab recipe: great flavours and so easy to make! Eb x
You got me with honey drizzled cashews! This looks and sounds amazing
Haha, yes, the honey drizzled cashews are pretty awesome – and so easy to do! Just don’t make the same mistake I did of letting them cool in the pan. They fused themselves to the pan! I had to chisel them off. Luckily they still tasted amazing and the pan survived the experience!! Thanks for your kind comments 🙂 Eb x
I absolutely love how you’ve presented your salad Eb, those peaking out from their shell look absolutely amazing – so inviting 🙂 it sounds so good, and love that it can be adapted to be suitable for vegetarians.
Angela x
It’s a really delicious salad and very adaptable to a whole range of dietary requirements. It’s funny how the little things can make all the difference, when it comes to food styling – it really didn’t take very long to cut up those sugar snaps but, you are right, it makes the whole thing look much more inviting. Thanks for your kind comments 🙂 Eb x
I love all the flavours in this salad Eb, I might try to make a veggie version of this. Madeleine Shaw is amazing isn’t she, have you tried her new book too?
It’s a fab salad and I think would be fab in veggie form too. Madeleine’s recipes are really good – I have both her books and really love them. Especially the ‘fast’ section in her second book – full of quick, easy and delicious recipes – right up my street!! Eb x
I love the sound of this! Salads are great for summer and Thai flavours always bring back good memories as we spent our honeymoon in Thailand!
Thanks, Corina! Wow – Thailand sounds like an amazing place for a honeymoon!! I bet you ate some wonderful food when you were there. I do love Thai food 🙂 Eb x
This looks amazing Eb! I could eat this now! Pinned for better weather! M x
Thanks, Midgie! Fingers crossed we do get some better weather soon!! Eb x
This is my kind of salad. I often make roasted nuts with drizzled honey. They are so good. I can almost taste how great they are in this dish!
Aw, thanks Kate. Nuts with honey are awesome…I had some walnuts drizzled with honey on my porridge the other day…so good. Maple syrup is also good – the kids and I went a bit mad for maple roasted pecans at Christmas last year! It all started with that sprout post!! Eb x
Every dish you make is my kind of food! Love this x
Aw, Vicki – you say the nicest things. Thank you! Eb x