Za’atar Chicken Salad
Tender and crunchy. Tender, juicy and fresh and crunchy. Yummie, yummie, boom, boom! Well, what can I say. Sometimes my brain just goes haywire and I no longer know what I actually wanted to write. Complete emptiness in my head – all I can think about is food. How else could it be when this za’atar chicken salad is still dancing on your tongue the whole time?
On the art of freaking out over a salad
Yes, I have already said that writing this text is a bit difficult for me. To explain it to you roughly, you have to imagine the production of such a recipe as follows:
The idea
I’m light-heartedly preparing my lunch and suddenly this idea nestles in my consciousness. “Salad, Za’atar, Tender Chicken Breast.” Hmm… that sounds kind of nice… “SALAAAT, ZAAA’ATARRRRR, CHICKEEN!!!” Ok, I need to write this down. “HUNGA you MONKEY!” Ok, I need to make myself something to eat quickly. “WRITE THIS DOWN NOW OR YOU’LL FORGET AGAIN!!111!!!” I’m writing already, damn it!
The implementation
Then I write down the components I want to use for the recipe. Then I go shopping for the ingredients, prepare everything and test whether it works well and whether it tastes good. Then it’s photo time, then post-processing and then I write the text for it. It doesn’t always have to happen on the same day. But it has to happen soon, so that my taste buds still have the dish fresh in their memory. Sometimes the memory is so fresh that my stomach provokes my brain, which then gets nasty and says “HUNGA DU OPFA!!!11!!!” again.
The freak out
So there I am, sitting at my desk, trying to write a text about this fantastically crunchy salad with unbelievably juicy chicken marinated in za’atar, and all I can think about is that I absolutely have to have this right now or else bite the keyboard. I didn’t bite the keyboard, but my colleague Lara’s arm. It didn’t really help. But the text is there now. And so is the salad with za’atar chicken. Phew!
Recipe for Za’atar Chicken Salad
Ingredients
For the chicken
For the salad
- 1/2 Lollo Verde
- 2 Handful Pick lettuce
- 6 Cherry tomatoes
- 6 Radish
- 1 Spring onion
- 1/2 Cucumber
- 1 Handful Parsley
- 1 Handful Mint
- 100 g Feta
- 2 TL Za'atar
- 1 TBSP Pine nuts
- Salt, pepper, za'atar
Zubereitung
Marinate chicken
- Wake the chicken and pat dry.
- Wash the lemon thoroughly, finely grate the zest and squeeze out one half.
- Peel the garlic and crush it finely with a little salt in a mortar.
- Mix together the lemon juice and zest, olive oil, garlic, za'atar, salt and pepper and rub the chicken well. Then set the chicken aside to rest for about 15 minutes.
Salad
- Wash the vegetables and spin dry.
- Cut the vegetables into the desired shape, roughly chop the herbs.
- Mix the vegetables and herbs together.
- Mix the olive oil, lemon juice, za'atar, salt and pepper to make a dressing and season to taste. Then marinate the salad with it and mix.
- Toast the pine nuts in a non-stick frying pan without fat on a high heat until they are golden brown. Then remove directly from the pan.
- Preheat the oven to 140 °C.
- Sear the chicken in a pan with a little oil for approx. 2 minutes on each side and then place in the oven for approx. 10 minutes to cook through. (Alternatively, cook on the grill)
- Divide the salad and chicken between plates and top with pine nuts and, if desired, salt, pepper and more za'atar.
Nährwerte
Be sure to try the tomato salad with sumac onions, the Lebanese potato salad or tabouleh.
