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Dinner with Rukmini
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Avocado and Chicken Salad with Pomegranates and Brown Rice
Introduction from Rukmini Iyer
This simple chicken salad provides a wonderful contrast of flavours and textures. Baked avocado might sound odd, but it’s so delicious, particularly when paired with crisp pomegranate seeds and mildly chilli-spiked chicken. It’s more filling than it looks, so will serve four people as a light main or two hungrier people – by all means scale up the chicken and avocado depending on your audience.
Ingredients
Method
Preheat your oven to 180°C fan/200°C/gas 6. Tip the rice into a large pan of boiling salted water and simmer for 30 minutes, until the rice is cooked through and ever so slightly al dente.
Meanwhile, halve the avocados and remove the stones, then place them face up in a roasting tin along with the chicken breasts, making sure everything is in one layer. Scatter over the chilli flakes, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper and drizzle with the olive oil. Mix everything briefly until well coated in the oil, then pop the roasting tin into the preheated oven for 25 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through.
For the dressing, whisk together the lime juice, extra virgin olive oil, mint leaves and pomegranate seeds, then season with salt and pepper and set aside. Once the rice has cooked, drain it well in a sieve, then allow to steam dry for a few minutes.
Remove the cooked chicken and avocados from the roasting tin and slice them, discarding the avocado skin. Tip the cooked rice into the tin along with half the dressing and the spinach, and mix well with the chilli oil left in the tin. Scatter the cooked chicken and avocado over the top along with the remaining pomegranate dressing, and serve hot.
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