Warm chicken salad

Amazing recipe from Jamie Oliver. For all the criticisms of JO's cooking by other celebrity chefs, I think some of them are unwarranted as he does have some really interesting ideas. Case in point, this salad he made on his Jamie at Home show.

Crunchy Crispy Chicken Legs Caesar Salad

6 – 8 chicken legs
3 sprigs fresh rosemary
3 tab olive oil
Salt & pepper
8 – 10 slices of pancetta or bacon
1 loaf of uncut bread – ripped into chunks
1 Cos lettuce

Caesar Dressing
2 – 3 anchovies
½ clove garlic
1 tab crème fraiche
Juice of 1 lemon
½ cup oil
¾ - 1 cup grated fresh parmesan

Chicken
Peel off the leaves from the rosemary stalk and bash together with the oil, salt & pepper in a mortar & pestle.
Rub all over the chicken.
Place some extra sprigs of rosemary and the bread on the bottom of a cast iron pan (or a heavy based roasting dish), place the chicken over & bake until cooked and crispy. (The bread will soak up all the chicken juices & oils and these will be used as the croutons in the salad)
Remove from oven, lay over the pancetta/bacon, return to oven & cook until pancetta/bacon is crispy.

Caesar Dressing

Place the anchovies, a little of the anchovy oil & the garlic in a mortar and pestle and smash together well.
Add crème fraiche, lemon juice & parmesan cheese. Mix well then add the oil and mix until combined & smooth.

Salad
Place the Cos lettuce leaves into a bowl.
Take the chicken from the oven and tear off the meat then rustically chop up with the pancetta/bacon & bread (reserving some bread & pancetta/bacon for topping).
Mix the chicken, pancetta/bacon and bread in with the Cos leaves and drizzle over the dressing,
Sprinkle over the reserved bread & pancetta/bacon & shave over some fresh parmesan.


Because I didn't want to spend the money on anchovies, the creme fraiche and the parmesan cheese, I decided to go for a simple salad dressing: olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. I really like this dish, and it's definitely one that I will cook again. Oh you must crush the rosemary leaves for the chicken, I didn't do that and so there's bits of it in the salad which can be quite bitter when you chew on it. Why didn't I do it? Because I was lazy.