Fattoush with Chicken Wings
A Lebanese inspired recipe for chicken wings. The fattoush salad is enhanced by sweet sumac, fennel and radish, then served with the juicy chicken wings.
Introduction
Fattoush is a salad from Lebanon; sumac has been a spice to discover. It comes from the berries of the sumac tree and has a refreshing lemon flavour. I first ate the most glorious Lebanese food when asked to breakfast with Leila Khattar. Leila is a brilliant cook and has often made wonderful breakfasts for us in her flat. The table would be covered with different dishes and more would appear. Fattoush was always refreshing and cleansing, almost helping you on with the next courses. Leila, come back to London and cook for us.
I hope in this recipe I haven’t spoilt hundreds of years of culture. The chicken wings go well with this salad. Teenage food, lots of healthy salad to help with the spots and crisp wings to fill them up.
Ingredients
| For the chicken wings: | |
| 500g | chicken wings |
| 6 | cloves of garlic |
| Juice of 2 lemons | |
| 70ml | olive oil |
| 1½ tsp | sea salt |
| Freshly ground black pepper | |
| For the salad: | |
| 12 | radishes |
| 1 | bulb of fennel |
| 4 | tomatoes |
| 4 | spring onions |
| 2 | little gem lettuces |
| A bunch | of fresh flat-leaf parsley |
| A bunch | of fresh mint |
| A bunch | of rocket |
| 1 | cucumber |
| 2 | sheets of flatbread |
| Olive oil | |
| For the dressing: | |
| 2 | cloves of garlic |
| 4 tsp | lemon juice |
| 2 tsp | ground sumac |
| 70ml | olive oil |
| 1 tsp | sea salt |
| Freshly ground black pepper |
Essential kit
You will need a roasting tray.
Method
Trim each chicken wing by chopping off the pointy end piece. Chop the garlic finely. Put the garlic and lemon juice into a bowl large enough to hold the wings, and whisk in the olive oil. Add the chicken wings and leave to marinate for at least 2 hours.
Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/350°F/gas 4. Season the wings with salt and pepper, put them into a roasting tray, and roast in the oven for 40 minutes, until brown and crisp.
Meanwhile, to make the dressing, chop the garlic finely and put it into a bowl with the lemon juice, sumac and olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.
Slice the radishes thinly. Slice the fennel very thinly – a mandoline is helpful here. Dice the tomatoes into small chunks. Add all these to the dressing.
Thinly slice the spring onions and little gems and leave to one side. Pick the parsley and mint leaves and coarsely chop (they need to have texture), and roughly chop the rocket. Leave to one side. Slice the cucumber into quarters lengthways and then into small pieces.
When the chicken wings are nearly done, put the bread into the oven and toast until crisp. Break into small pieces and toss in olive oil.
When everything is ready, toss the salad together. Check for seasoning and lemon, and serve.
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