Recipe: Poached chicken breasts with wild garlic salsa verde

Gently poaching the chicken and serving it with the wild garlic salsa and thinly sliced radishes results in a delicate dish for a summer meal. This dish tastes clean and fresh.

Ingredients

Salsa verde

• 20 g wild garlic or 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 3 anchovy fillets, finely chopped
• 15 g flat-leaf parsley, coarsely chopped
• 2 tablespoons small capers in vinegar, rinsed and drained
• 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
• zest and juice of 1/2 lemon
• 80 ml extra virgin olive oil
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

Poached chicken

• 1 carrot, roughly sliced
• 1 celery stick, roughly chopped
• 3 large garlic cloves
• half a small bunch of flat-leaf parsley
• 3 lemon rinds
• 4 skinless boneless chicken breasts

To serve

• blanched fresh broad beans
• watercress
• radish slices

Serves 4

Method

1. For the salsa verde, blend the garlic leaves or garlic cloves, anchovies, parsley, capers, vinegar and lemon zest and juice to a coarse paste in a food processor. With the motor running, add the olive oil in a thin steady stream, then season to taste. Set aside until ready to use.

2. For the poached chicken, put the carrot, celery and garlic in a large saucepan. Add the parsley, lemon rinds, salt, chicken breasts, and 1 litre cold water (adding a little more water if it doesn’t quite cover the chicken). Bring to the boil, then immediately lower to a simmer and cook over a very low heat for 10–12 minutes, or until the juices run clear in the thickest part of the breast.

3. Remove the pan from the heat and scoop out the chicken breasts from the poaching liquid. Slice or tear the chicken, serve with the broad beans, watercress, radishes and a drizzle of salsa verde.

Recipe from The Herb Kitchen published by Ryland Peters & Small (£14.99).

Other recipes from this book include red mullet in an envelope.