Chicken & quinoa salad with coronation crème fraîche

The fresh herbs and lemon juice in the quinoa perfectly contrast the creamy, gently spiced coronation crème fraîche - it’s very satisfying and very delicious. Background sweetness comes from dried apricots, and some toasted flaked almonds add lovely nutty notes and bite.

This is recipe number 2 in “The Pecking Order” (more on that here) - it follows our Italian inspired roast chicken with creamy parmesan beans. This is sensible, delicious, joined-up cooking which showcases how one of Sutton Hoo’s healthy, sizeable birds can happily yield 3 fantastic meals for 4 people.

We firmly believe that when eating meat it’s important to ensure that every last morsel is used and appreciated, and the meat is stretched as far as possible in creative, vegcentric ways.

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Prep time: 20 mins

Cooking time: 20-30 mins

This recipes serves: 4 people

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Ingredients for the salad.

• 200 g quinoa

• approx 1 cup leftover roast chicken

• 2 tbsp flaked almonds or pine nuts

• 12 apricots

• 4 spring onions

• 25 g flat leaf parsley

• 25 g coriander

• 25 g mint 

• 2 tbsp olive oil

• 1 lemon, juice & zest

• 1 tsp flakey sea salt

Ingredients for the coronation crème fraîche.

• 1-2 tbsp olive oil

• 1 small onion

• 1 small thumb ginger

• 1 clove garlic

• 2 tsp mild curry powder

• ½ tsp flakey sea salt

• 4 tbsp crème fraîche

• 1 tbsp mayonnaise

• 1 tbsp apricot jam

• 1 tbsp lemon juice

Method.

1. Start by preparing the creme fraiche. Dice the onion as finely as possible, and mince the garlic and ginger.

2. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in your smallest frying pan and very gently fry the diced onion for 8 minutes, stirring often.

3. After 8 minutes add the ginger, garlic, curry powder and sea salt and fry for a further 4 minutes, stirring often to prevent things catching. Add another teaspoon of oil if needs be. After 4 minutes allow this to cool.

4. Once cool, tip your onions etc into a small blender along with the crème fraîche, mayonnaise, apricot jam and lemon juice. Whizz until smooth.

5. For the quinoa salad, bring the quinoa to simmer in a saucepan of salted water, and simmer gently for 15-18 minutes, or until you can see the grain uncoil slightly. Drain and allow the steam to billow off well.

6. Meanwhile, dry toast the flaked almonds or pine nuts in a moderate oven (160 C) for 4-6 minutes, or until golden; alternatively dry toast these in a small frying pan but stir often and watch like a hawk.

7. Chop the dried apricots in small pieces, finely slice the spring onions, and chop the herbs - be sure to include the stalk of the parsley and coriander.

8. Toss the cooked and cooled quinoa with the leftover chicken, flaked almonds, apricots, spring onions and herbs, then dress and toss with olive oil, lemon juice, zest and a pinch of salt.

9. If you fancy extra greens, serve this quinoa on a bed of salad leaves, then spoon over your creamy coronation crème fraîche and enjoy. A final drizzle of olive oil and a squeeze of lemon is always a great final touch to brighten all the beautiful flavours.