I hesitate to call this a salad, because although I know it’s
totally cool these days to have salad for dinner, to me it still suggests a
side dish or, at best, lunch. This, however, is a BIG salad, full of golden
roast chicken with smoked salt, crispy chorizo, and gnocchi, with a pretty damn
awesome dressing made with the juices from the chorizo. It’s well up to the
task of being dinner.
2 chicken thighs
Smoked salt
Thyme
Butter
50g chorizo
250g gnocchi
Fresh green rocket
For the dressing:
Olive oil
Dijon mustard
White wine vinegar
1 garlic clove
Serves 2
Preheat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan). Place the chicken
thighs in a small baking dish, skin-side-up. Sprinkle with smoked salt and
dried thyme, and then drizzle with a little melted butter. Place in the oven
and set a timer for 50 minutes.
When there are about 20 minutes left to go, you can start
preparing the other elements. Chop the chorizo into small pieces (I cut it into
rounds and then quartered each one) and frizzle in a little olive oil. Melt
some butter in another pan and add the gnocchi, tossing regularly to make sure
that it’s all evenly coated.
When the chicken is nearly done, scoop the crispy chorizo
out of the frying pan, making sure to leave all the juices behind. Pop the
chorizo on some kitchen paper to drain off any excess oil. In the meantime, add
a splash of olive oil and the crushed garlic clove to the pan you fried the
chorizo in. Once the garlic is sizzling nicely, add half a teaspoon of mustard
and a splash of white wine vinegar to the pan, whisk briefly and taste – you might
need to add a pinch of salt.
To serve, lay a bed of fresh rocket on two plates and top
with the golden gnocchi and crispy chorizo. Finish off with the roast chicken
thighs and drizzle with the chorizo dressing.
