Spicy chicken thighs with cucumber salad

Spicy chicken thighs with cucumber salad

Today's dish is a light fresh dish from the Far East that came from Australian celeb chef Bill Granger, the marinade on the chicken has that real Asian feel to it sweet, hot and salty with the dressing for the cucumber salad adding the sour edge of fresh lime. This is one of the simplest Asian dishes I've done both in prep and cooking, the marinade needs at least 20 minutes to absorb into the chicken although I left it for over an hour. Bill's original recipe contains cashew nuts, however, as I cooking this for my kids I decided to leave them out he also removes the Chicken skin seems like a waste to me as it's full of flavour and it's not every day. I've got nothing against give the kids nuts I just didn't feel they would enjoy it, in fact I've sugest if cooking for older children or adults I'd absolutely leave them in.

Ingredients

Cooking time: 1 hour Serves: 1 (simply increase quantities for each additional person)

Marinade for chicken

- 1 tbsp Fish Sauce
- Cracked black pepper, to taste
- 1 clove Garlic, crushed
- 1 Red Chilli, finely chopped
- 1 tsp Caster sugar
- 2 Chicken thighs, bone removed
- 1 tbsp Sunflower or vegetable oil

Cucumber salad

- Juice of half a lime
- 1 tsp caster sugar
- 50g fine egg noodles
- 1/8 cucumber, halved and thinly sliced. This approx and depends on the size of the cucumber
- small handful fresh mint leaves
- 1 medium spring onion, sliced finely
- optional 1/2 tbsp cashews or peanuts, crushed

For the spicy chicken thighs, whisk the fish sauce, pepper, garlic, chillies and sugar together in a bowl.
In a separate bowl, pour half the marinade over the chicken thighs. Cover with cling film and refrigerate for 20 minutes. Reserve the rest of the marinade.

For cucumber and cashew salad, make a dressing by adding the lime juice and sugar to the reserved marinade, stirring until the sugar has dissolved.

In a heat-proof bowl, cover the vermicelli with boiling water and leave for a minute or so until the noodles have softened.

Drain and rinse the noodles under cold water. Mix the drained noodles in a large bowl with the cucumber, mint, spring onions, cashews and the dressing until well combined.

Remove the chicken thighs from the marinade, shaking off any excess. Fry the chicken thighs in the oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat for 3-4 minutes on each side, or until cooked through. (You may have to do this in batches.)
To serve, divide the cucumber and cashew salad among four plates, slice the chicken and place alongside.

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