Gin & Tonic Chicken Salad

Poaching a whole chicken borrowing from the Chinese style really takes the heat out of the kitchen and produces a succulent moist bird that can be added to a salad or combined with mayonnaise as a sandwich filling.

The chicken can be cooked the day before and chilled in the fridge overnight.

250ml gin

1litre tonic water

1 litre water

4 spring onions, tied in a knot

1 small knob of ginger, sliced

1 cardamom pod, bruised

2 star anise

4 lemons- 1 cut in half

1 chicken

1 iceberg lettuce, washed dried and shredded

1 telegraph cucumber

1 small white salad onion

1/2 cup mint leaves

Dressing

1/3 cup olive oil

1tbs gin

2tbs lemon juice

1tsp honey

1tsp dijon mustard

pinch of salt

freshly ground pepper

Whisk all the ingredients together, or in a sealed jar, shake until emulsified.

Add to a pot large enough to hold the chicken snugly the gin, tonic, water, spring onions, ginger, cardamom, star anise and lemon halves and bring it to the boil.

Prick a lemon all over and push it into the chicken’s cavity.

pat the chicken dry and rub all over with a heaped teaspoon of salt.

Carefully lower the chicken, breast side down into the water, return to a simmer, replace the lid and lower the heat. Cook for a further 15 minutes. Do not allow it to return to the boil or it will make the meat tough.

Leave the lid in place and leave the chicken in the pot for 3 hours, it will continue to cook and be succulent and delicious. [dont be tempted to remove the lid and take a peak!]

Remove the chicken from the stock with tongs and allow it to drain before transferring to a cutting board.

Discard the skin and shred the chicken.

Cut the cucumber in half lengthways and remove the seeds with a teaspoon, then slice into half moons.

halve and thinly slice the onion.

Remove the skin from the lemons and make sure there is no pith left on the fruit, cut into segments.

Tumble the lettuce, cucumber, onion, lemon segments and mint leaves together on a platter, scatter over the chicken and drizzle over the dressing.

Serves 4-6.