This salad is superb warm or cold – and if you don’t call it ‘salad’, then it’s great hot too!  But if forced to choose between them, warm would be my absolute favourite.

Like many chicken recipes it would be very good made with pork instead.   You can make it in an oven if you have one, or on a single hob if you don’t.

It’s a salad that doesn’t need extra carbohydrate – the celeriac is filling.  But if you are feeding the seriously hungry then fresh crusty bread would be brilliant.  Or you could try adding cooked bite size potatoes to the mix – small potatoes boiled if you don’t have an oven, or large potatoes cut small and baked with the celeriac if you do.  Or turn your favourite pasta through it – larger shapes would work well.

The essence of it

Cube some celeriac, toss a little salt and oil over it and roast at 200C for 25/30 minutes.  If you don’t have an oven, sauté it gently in a frying pan, probably for slightly less time.  Add the chicken thigh fillets, cubed to bite size, stir to mix, and roast or sauté for another 10/12 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through, stirring well from time to time.

Let the mixture cool slightly, season if needed, and add either a dash of lemon juice or a touch of balsamic vinegar.

Toss the leaves in the French dressing (or leave them undressed if you don’t have any French dressing – the chicken/celeriac mix is succulent).  Arrange the leaves on the plate, and pile the chicken and celeriac mixture in the middle.  If you have a lemon, top each plate off with a lemon quarter, for diners to add extra lemon juice if they want it.

Voilà!

Happy, quick, and easy cooking, and – bon appétit!

Anna

And now in more detail

For two:

2 – 4 chicken thigh fillets (depending on how hungry you are), cut into bite-sized pieces.  See the end of this blog post on how to ringing the changes to use other sorts of chicken instead of expensive thigh fillets, or indeed to use pork).

One medium sized celeriac, also cut into bite sized pieces

A lemon if you can (a squeeze of lemon juice would do instead), or a scant dessert spoon of balsamic vinegar per person makes an easy and delicious dressing for the chicken/celeriac mix.

Oil for frying

Salt and pepper

Salad leaves / rocket / lettuce

1 tbsp approx French dressing

Cut the outer skin off the celeriac and divide it into bite sized chunks.  Toss a little salt and oil over it and roast at about 200C for 25/30 minutes – oven vary, and it is also affected by the size of pan you put it in – if it has lots of space and it will cook more quickly and brown more readily; if it is squeezed in it will take longer and won’t tend to brown.

If you don’t have an oven, sautė it gently in a frying pan with the lid on  – this is also generally a little quicker).

While the celeriac is cooking, cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces and when the time is up add it to the celeriac, stirring well to mix.  Roast / sauté for another 10 minutes.

It may then all be ready, but if the chicken has cooked right through before the celeriac has softened enough, just pick out the pieces of chicken and leave the celeriac to go on roasting / sautéeing until it is either al dente, or fully softened, as you prefer.  If the chicken isn’t quite cooked (no pinkness when you cut one of largest pieces in half) then leave it a few minutes longer.

Let the cooked chicken and celeriac mix cool slightly, season it with a little pepper, and mix together with the juice of half the lemon (or a few shakes from the bottle if that is all you have) or the balsamic vinegar.   Recheck the seasoning and add more salt if needed.

Toss the leaves in the French dressing, arrange them on the plate, and pile the chicken and celeriac mixture in the middle.  Top each plate off with a lemon quarter, for diners to add extra lemon juice if they want it – such elegance!

(Whether you are eating it while still warm or else when cold, obviously you won’t want chicken – or pork if you make it with pork – standing around on a warm day, so if you don’t have a fridge don’t make it too far in advance.)

And some variants

Thigh fillets are expensive (though you may be able to justify them to yourself on the basis that that spending a bit more to make cooking easy when on holiday is a lot cheaper and healthier than go out or having a take away).

Any alternative chicken leg meat works well, because its greater juiciness than breast means it melds superbly with the celeriac and does away with the need for much dressing (which simplifies things too).  So you could certainly do this with leg joints, or with bone-in thighs, which are less expensive, or with drumsticks.  Even possibly with chicken wings, though I haven’t tried that.

If you are using bone in thighs or drumsticks they will need longer to cook than diced chicken – start them at the same time as you start the celeriac.  If you are using a whole leg joints you may want to give them five or ten minutes before you add the celeriac.

If it just has to be chicken breast for you, that’s fine too, but watch how quickly it is cooking with an eagle eye – too long and it will go dry and stringy.  Probably ten minutes max if diced, but always check by snipping a larger piece in half.  For chicken breasts you might want to consider the gourmandise version where you use mayonnaise with a touch of mustard as the dressing for the chicken celery mix …. “Naughty but nice” has to be the only comment!

Unless you are using chicken breasts, which do mind being over-cooked, this dish is very good natured about timing – a bit more or a bit less doesn’t matter, just as long as the chicken isn’t undercooked.

And like so many chicken recipes, it also works well made with diced pork.

Bon appétit!

Anna