Orange-Infused Chicken couscous salad
Jul. 6th, 2010 10:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
indiana_jI think I need to start this out by saying that as a general rule, orange flavors and I are not on-board with each other. It's the odd one out of the citrus family seeing as I've really, really come to love lemon and lime but I feel that orange tends to be an overdone flavor. I like sweet but it can take it to a level that even I dislike.
That being said, I think dishes like this could really turn me around. Maybe not to the level of my love of lemon and lime these days but certainly to the point of appreciation.
The two things missing from this when I made it were the mint and the baby spinach - mainly because no store that I went to seemed to have fresh mint (another flavor I'm not keen on so I decided to not go out to other stores) and because I'd meant to make this dish last week. Seems baby spinach goes bad rather quickly...
What the magazine, a Food & Drink that Dex gave me the last time I was up, has to say about this dish is:
Bright sunny flavours (Canada, remember?) of chicken, orange and mint (whoops) make this salad delicious warm or cold. You can serve this with or without the arugula, or try baby spinach instead. Poaching the chicken in the orange juice mixture helps infuse the chicken with more flavour than just using an orange dressing.
And, in my opinion, it cuts down on the potential sweet that an orange sauce sometimes implies.
Ingredients:
2 cups orange juice
1 shallot, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 fresh thyme sprigs
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, about 1 lb
1/2 cup chicken stock
1 1/4 cups couscous
1 small red or orange pepper, chopped (I used yellow as when I went, the others looked ... sad)
2 green onions, sliced
1/4 cup chopped fresh mint
1/4 diced dried apricots (I loathe apricots, so I on purpose skipped this - I really don't think I missed out)
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp seasoned rice vinegar or apple cider vinegar
6 cups lightly packed baby arugula
Salt and pepper
1. Bring 1 cup of the orange juice, shallot, garlic and thyme to boil in a skillet. Add chicken breasts, cover and simmer for about 10 minutes, turning once, or until no longer pink inside. Set aside.
2. Bring remaining orange juice and stock to boil in a saucepan and add couscous. Remove from heat, cover and let stand for 5 minutes. Using a fork, fluff couscous into a large bowl. Add pepper, green onions, mint and apricots.
3. Remove chicken breasts from orange mixture and chop into bite-sized pieces. Add to couscous. Remove thyme sprigs from skillet and bring remaining orange juice mixture to boil for 2 minutes or until almost all the juice is evaporated. Whisk in oil and vinegar and pour over couscous and chicken mixture. Toss to coat evenly and season with salt and pepper.
4. Divide arugula among plates and spoon couscous salad overtop to serve.
I got three fairly large servings out of this (dinner and two lunches), so it comfortably would feed 4.
I did find that by the time the chicken had finished poaching, there really wasn't much juice left so I whisked in the oil and vinegar and heated up so that it was warm when I poured it over. When I'd flipped the chicken over for the last five minutes, it had caramelized and the scrapings added a really nice smokey flavor to the whole thing.
Overall, I'd certainly do this dish again. It took me less than an hour to prepare and cook, something I value on a weeknight, especially a weeknight that I had to run errands before even getting home.
That being said, I think dishes like this could really turn me around. Maybe not to the level of my love of lemon and lime these days but certainly to the point of appreciation.
The two things missing from this when I made it were the mint and the baby spinach - mainly because no store that I went to seemed to have fresh mint (another flavor I'm not keen on so I decided to not go out to other stores) and because I'd meant to make this dish last week. Seems baby spinach goes bad rather quickly...
What the magazine, a Food & Drink that Dex gave me the last time I was up, has to say about this dish is:
Bright sunny flavours (Canada, remember?) of chicken, orange and mint (whoops) make this salad delicious warm or cold. You can serve this with or without the arugula, or try baby spinach instead. Poaching the chicken in the orange juice mixture helps infuse the chicken with more flavour than just using an orange dressing.
And, in my opinion, it cuts down on the potential sweet that an orange sauce sometimes implies.
Ingredients:
2 cups orange juice
1 shallot, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 fresh thyme sprigs
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, about 1 lb
1/2 cup chicken stock
1 1/4 cups couscous
1 small red or orange pepper, chopped (I used yellow as when I went, the others looked ... sad)
2 green onions, sliced
1/4 cup chopped fresh mint
1/4 diced dried apricots (I loathe apricots, so I on purpose skipped this - I really don't think I missed out)
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp seasoned rice vinegar or apple cider vinegar
6 cups lightly packed baby arugula
Salt and pepper
1. Bring 1 cup of the orange juice, shallot, garlic and thyme to boil in a skillet. Add chicken breasts, cover and simmer for about 10 minutes, turning once, or until no longer pink inside. Set aside.
2. Bring remaining orange juice and stock to boil in a saucepan and add couscous. Remove from heat, cover and let stand for 5 minutes. Using a fork, fluff couscous into a large bowl. Add pepper, green onions, mint and apricots.
3. Remove chicken breasts from orange mixture and chop into bite-sized pieces. Add to couscous. Remove thyme sprigs from skillet and bring remaining orange juice mixture to boil for 2 minutes or until almost all the juice is evaporated. Whisk in oil and vinegar and pour over couscous and chicken mixture. Toss to coat evenly and season with salt and pepper.
4. Divide arugula among plates and spoon couscous salad overtop to serve.
I got three fairly large servings out of this (dinner and two lunches), so it comfortably would feed 4.
I did find that by the time the chicken had finished poaching, there really wasn't much juice left so I whisked in the oil and vinegar and heated up so that it was warm when I poured it over. When I'd flipped the chicken over for the last five minutes, it had caramelized and the scrapings added a really nice smokey flavor to the whole thing.
Overall, I'd certainly do this dish again. It took me less than an hour to prepare and cook, something I value on a weeknight, especially a weeknight that I had to run errands before even getting home.