Grilled Chicken Litchi Salad with Molasses mustard dressing

Grilled Chicken Litchi Salad with Molasses Mustard Dressing 

There is that time for celebration when you are perfectly happy with a particular method of cooking and as long as the results seem perfect to you that is all that matters. Having said that I still believe there are a few rules to be followed when it comes to cooking dishes. For instance its all well and good to make mistakes while baking your tart shell but passing off a soggy bottomed tart shell as perfect just because one has put in the effort in his or her kitchen is a tad too sad. Then again if you like soggy bottomed tarts you should perhaps dance around a bit.

Anyway moving on to my week of celebrating salads. This one is close to my heart because I am finally 100% satisfied with my grilled chicken leg. A few months ago I had shared with you how I had followed this method of basically steaming the chicken for 5 minutes and then grilling it which does give very good results but  while I was more or less satisfied with the result somehow in my mind I still wanted to grill chicken without creating excess steam in my oven.  I wanted to master the technique of grilling in my oven without a shortcut method.

Here I have to mention that I do not own a barbecue stove so my grilled chicken is not fully cooked the way it is supposed to be since it does not involve cooking over coal which gives it that smoky flavour and while there is another method that I have been told about which creates the smoky flavour this whole faux pas method seems a bit like cheating to me.

So here is the most juicy chicken legs that I have ever made in the oven.

Since we are celebrating salad week I rested the chicken for 2 minutes and then sliced the meat, kept the bones for stock to be made later on and tossed it with my greens. The other point is that I simply adore pairing meat with fruits. Give me some Kebabs and fresh fruits and I am a happy girl. In this salad I have used some tropical summer fruits , 'Litchi' and the fleshy sweet fruit was a delight with the fresh salad.


Serves 2

2 cups of mixed salad greens (I used a mixture of Romaine lettuce and red leaf lettuce)
7 to 8 plump litchi skinned and de-seeded
1 chicken leg (thigh and leg)

To marinate the chicken :-

1/3rd tsp fresh rosemary
1 tbsp Olive Oil
Salt as per taste
2 tsp balsamic vinegar

For the dressing :-

3/4th tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/3rd tbsp Molasses
1/2 tsp mustard
Salt as per taste


I used skinless chicken so I made some slits on both sides and marinated the chicken for 18 hours with the ingredients mentioned for marination.

Preheat the oven at 180C. Place the rack on the top most part of the oven and grill the chicken for 5 minutes per side brushing the chicken with a bit of olive oil when you turn the chicken and then increase the oven temperature to 230C with the mode where the heat comes from the top alone and grill for 4 minutes per side and then let the chicken rest for 5 minutes.

In the meantime toss your greens with the litchi and then slice up the chicken leg and throw in the meat . Whisk the dressing and enjoy a healthy and satisfying lunch or dinner.

Very important tip

1. If your greens have drooped a bit simply fill a bowl with ice cold water and plunge in the greens for 5 minutes and voila you have beautiful crisp salad greens.  
2. The summers of India are terrible and preserving your freshly bought salad greens can be a pain. So here is a tip to store greens and herbs. The day you buy them wrap them in cloth and put them in the refrigerator. they stay fresh for a week. This tip was shared by my kind vegetable vendor and it works very well.