Avocado Chicken Mango Salad With Hazelnut Honey Dressing

The contrasting colours in this salad are appealing to the eye and the subtle combination of flavours is divine. This is a great brunch or lunch dish, and in hot weather a dinner dish that I've found always proves to be popular. It caters so well for those NOT into hot and spicy dishes. Adapted from a recipe on a 'Pan or Wok' recipe card from International Masters.

• Ready In: 40 mins
• Serves: 6

Ingredients

• 5  chicken breast fillets, skins removed
• 750  ml  chicken stock
• 2 1⁄2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 1  ripe mango
• 1  ripe avocado
• 100  g  baby spinach leaves

• Hazelnut Honey Dressing

• 100  g toasted hazelnuts
• 2 1⁄2 tablespoons  sunflower oil
• 2 1⁄2 tablespoons  sesame oil
• 1  lime, finely grated rind and juice
• 2 1⁄2 tablespoons clear honey
• 2 1⁄2 tablespoons soy sauce, sodium reduced

Directions

1. Place the chicken breasts in a pan, add the stock and lime juice, bring to the boil, then simmer for 20-25, or until the chicken is fully cooked.
2. Remove the chicken from the pan with a slotted spoon, set aside in a bowl and allow to cool.
3. Cut the chicken into thin strips.
4. Halve the avocado, remove the stone, peel the flesh and slice finely; halve the mango, remove the stone, peel the flesh and slice finely.
5. In the serving bowl, toss the avocado, mango, chicken and baby spinach leaves.
6. Hazelnut Honey Dressing: Roughly chop the nuts, whisk the oils, lime rind and juice, honey and soy sauce in a jug, then stir in the nuts.
7. Serving: Pour the Hazelnut Honey Dressing over the avocado, mango, chicken and spinach mixture, and toss lightly until all the salad ingredients are well coated and serve with warm crusty rolls.
8. Variation: For extra flavour, add some stir-fried, peeled tiger prawns to the salad mixture just before adding the Hazelnut Honey Dressing.
9. Chef's Notes: If you are unable to find toasted nuts, dry-fry the raw nuts in a heavy-based pan for 5 minutes over a low heat, shaking regularly. If you are adding the tiger prawns, depending on how many you add, you may want to make a slightly larger quantity of the dressing.
10. Hazelnut Fact: Hazelnuts are also known as filberts. According to tradition, the nuts are ripe for picking on 22 August, the feast day of Saint Philibert. I'm not sure which hemisphere this refers to. The original source of this recipe - and this 'fact' - is Australian, but I don't believe that there are any Australian Saint Philiberts! He's most probably a European saint.