November 2010 - Middle Eastern Chicken with chickpea, herb & feta salad

On to the last issue for the month with Valli Little's divine looking Three-tier Brown Sugar Pavlova. Slathered with cream and covered with oozing berries it looks so good, almost good enough to eat right off the cover. However, having already experimented with several different ice creams and sorbets and also having made the fruit salad dessert I didn't think that I needed another dessert for this month.   

I was going to make Valli's Greek Lamb Meatball Salad. I had every intention of making it right up until I decided that I didn't have everything I needed to make it and made something else. I am planning making it on the weekend for lunch though. Although who knows if I will actually get it made. I seem to have said that I will go back to a lot of recipes. I will admit that I have gone back and made a couple but not nearly enough of them. Although perhaps when I am not sticking so strictly to an order I will make more of here and there next year.

I ended up making the Middle Eastern Chicken with chickpea, herb & feta salad. I was worried that it was a bit light on vegetables so I added some deseeded and sliced cucumber and some chunks of tomato. It was nice, although I am not sure that you can combine sumac, lemon juice and oil and call it Middle Eastern. I think that some chilli or some cumin or something would have been nice to pep it up a bit. It was fine as it was but I might play around with it a bit if I make it again. 

Middle Eastern Chicken with chickpea, herb & feta salad

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 2 tsp sumac
• 1/3 cup (80 ml) olive oil 
• 1 lemon, sliced, plus juice of 1 lemon
• 4 x 200g chicken breast fillets 
• 40 g unsalted butter
• 1 round Lebanese bread, cut into wedges
• 400g can chickpeas, rinsed & drained
• 2 cups flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped 
• 1 red onion, sliced 
• 75g  Persian feta, drained

Method: 

• Combine sumac, 1 tbsp oil, lemon slices & lemon juice, reserve 1 tbsp for dressing. Add chicken and turn to coat. Marinate for 20 minutes. 
• Pre-heat oven to 180 C. 
• Heat 1 1/2 tbsp oil to large oven proof fry pan over medium heat. 
• Cook chicken (I also added lemon slices) for 3 minutes each side and then place in the oven for 8 minutes or until cooked.
• Loosely cover with foil and let rest at least 2 minutes. 
• Melt butter and 2 tsp oil in another fry pan over medium heat. 
• Season bread (I didn't do this) and cook for 4 - 5 minutes turning regularly until crisp. Remove and keep warm. 
• Add chickpeas to pan and warm through.
• Slice chicken and toss with chickpeas, bread, parsley, onion, feta and drizzle with reserved marinade.