COCONUT CHICKEN SALAD

Coconut chicken salad is a bright, creamy dish featuring shredded or diced poached or roasted chicken tossed with coconut, usually a mix of desiccated or flaked coconut and coconut milk or yoghurt, plus fresh accents such as lime, chilli, coriander or green onion. It balances sweet, savoury and tangy flavours and can be served on lettuce, in sandwiches or with rice crackers. Its exact origin isn't tied to a single place but it draws on tropical and Southeast Asian culinary influences where coconut and chicken are staples, and variations have appeared in Caribbean and Pacific island cuisines as well as modern fusion recipes in Western kitchens.

I became accustom to it whilst working at Tokyo Tina in the south east of Melbourne, where our sister restaurant Hanoi Hannah would serve them up for takeaway for lunch. This recipe is modelled after that exact salad, with a punch nuoc nam, coconut poached chicken and lots of fresh ingredients to bulk it out. It’s relatively quick to cook and makes a great lunch or dinner option on its own.

COCONUT CHICKEN SALAD

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COCONUT CHICKEN SALAD 〰️

Time: 25 minutes

Serves: 3-4

Coconut Chicken

400ml coconut milk

2 chicken breast

1 lemon grass stalk, chopped and banged

Place all ingredients into pot with 400ml water and pop onto medium heat. Bring up to a high simmer, before lowering heat low and letting it gently simmer for 10 minutes. Allow to cool in pot before removing breast and shredding with two forks.

Nuoc Mam Dressing

2 tbl sp caster sugar

1/2 cup boiling water

1/4 cup fish sauce

1 lime, juice

Dash of white wine vinegar

2 garlic cloves, roughly diced

1 long red chilli, roughly diced

In bowl pour boiling water over the caster sugar and mix with a spoon to bring all together and melt the sugar. Add in the rest of you ingredients and adjust to your taste.

Toasted Shredded Coconut

1/2 cup coconut flakes

Add coconut flakes to dry pan over high heat and allow to gently brown. Make sure you keep flipping the flakes to get an even coating or toasty colour and so not to burn the flakes.

Salad

1/8 wedge purple cabbage

1/2 red onion

1 carrot, peeled

1 Lebanese cucumber

1 cup coriander and mint leaves

Start by very thinly slicing the purple cabbage before also thinly slicing the red onion. Add to very large bowl and sprinkle on salt. Massage the salt through to help break the ingredients down for a minute or so. Add in the carrots and cucumber in by peeling them with a julienne peeler. Stop peeling when you hit the seeds in the cucumber. Finally add the herb leaves.

In same bowl add in the shredded coconut chicken and spoon in your nuoc mam dressing. Use as much dressing as you like, I use just over half the amount and you can save the rest in the fridge for other dishes. Mix together thoroughly until all the salad is coated before plating up and topping with the toasted coconut shreds.