Black Garlic Roast Chicken Summer Salad

All the summery flavours of fresh sweetcorn, juicy peaches and sun ripened tomatoes in a bowl with delicious Black Garlic Roast Chicken. Topped with crunchy croutons, that soaked up all the chicken juices and creamy, fresh goats’ cheese. Together with the black garlic vinaigrette, which is oil free, this Black Garlic Roast Chicken Summer Salad makes one delicious feast. All while being incredibly good for you.

 

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• Why You Will Love This
• The Ingredients
• The Process
• Meal Prep

Why You Will Love This 

The Inspiration

I’ve made plenty of roast chicken salads over the years. The very first one inspired by this stunning recipe from Jamie Oliver. And while I kept the idea with the croutons and tomatoes roasted in the chicken juices, as it’s just too good to pass on, I changed pretty much everything else many times. This summer salad is my favourite incarnation so far, as it just has so much going on.

The Incredibly Flavorful Chicken

I rarely have meat, so when I do, I treat it with care. Which is why I brined my free range chicken for this recipe in a buttermilk-black-garlic-brine with pulverised shiitake mushrooms the day before. This not only keeps the chicken super juicy while roasting, it also adds incredible flavour to the meat. If you have never done it, it’s a 10min work step that will take your roast chicken game to a whole new level.

The brining is optional. But I urge you to try it! It also means you can just prep the day before and, apart from pushing the Black Garlic Lemon Butter under the skin, you’ll have your chicken in the oven in no time. If you don’t want salad, this Black Garlic Roast Chicken will also be fantastic just with roasted potatoes, to mop up all the flavourful juices! Maybe some greens on the side. Which brings us right back to the reason I have salad with it in the first place.

Black Garlic

This stuff is essentially black gold! Well…some restaurants treat it that way for sure.

But there is no need to have fine dining monopolize it, as it adds so much flavor for such a low hands on input. In principle it uses the maillard reaction in extremely slow motion, to transform the pungent fresh garlic into shiny black nuggets full of sweetness, umami and fruity aromas, partially reminding of liquorice, that impart their stunning flavor on anything they touch. Even something as simple as a cheese sandwhich.

Here are detailed instructions on how to make your own Black Garlic. Takes just 5 minutes hands on work. And some patience.

6 of your 5-a-day in One Bowl

Adding lots and lots of plants to my diet was my “secret” to losing 70lb. This salad is a typical example of how I ate and still really enjoyed my meals. With crunchy radishes, lettuce and sweetcorn, intensely flavored roasted cherry tomatoes, briefly blanched broccoli and sweet, summery peaches this is one exciting meal to look forward to every day.

Oil Free Almond Vinaigrette

During my weight loss period I read a lot of books and articles about nutrition. And while I didn’t adhere to any one diet, as they all felt too restrictive, I took on part of several, that seemed enjoyable and doable. Part of that is the Nutritarian* idea of oil free, nut based dressing which I’m using for the Almond Vinaigrette.
This way you don’t just get your healthy fats, but also all the other benefits that come with almonds like fibre and protein.

The Ingredients

In the Roasting Tin

• A whole (preferably brined) good quality chicken is at the core of this summery salad.
• Black Garlic Butter with Lemon pushed under its skin gives it incredible juiciness and imparts a ton of flavor on tomatoes and later
• Sourdough bread croutons that are roasted in the same tin.

The Salad Ingredients

• Crunchy Romaine lettuce as a bed and to catch all the chicken juices. You could use any greens you like here.
• Sweetcorn, fresh from the cob. You could griddle this, but my smoke alarm is (the design ideas people have!) right above my hob, which sends the alarm into a frenzy and my dogs into a panic every time I griddle something. So, to save the dogs, the neighbours and myself some trauma and sore ears, I just boiled them briefly.
• Now you might just love broccoli as it is, but I really do not. Which is why I jazz it up a bit
• by frying some sliced garlic gently in olive oil until golden, adding salt and lemon juice (if you love hot food, which I don’t, you could add chili or red pepper flakes too) and drizzle it over the broccoli to marinate after having it briefly blanched.

One thing though:

If you are using the same water for broccoli and sweetcorn, boil the corn first, as it will otherwise taste like broccoli. Have a wild guess how I know…

The Black Garlic Vinaigrette

• Almonds – Ideally skin on, soaked overnight. In a pinch use almond butter.
• Black garlic – Which makes sense, considering I’m calling this Black Garlic vinaigrette. I’ve gone on about the flavor above and in the “How to make it” post, so I’ll spare you my ramblings here.
• Black rice vinegar  – Which is what I’m using for its depth of flavor. Or balsamic vinegar
• Raisins – To provide sweetness instead of honey or sugar. Trust me on this one, it’s a game changer
• Fresh garlic – Just a little, to add some punch
• Tamari  – or soy sauce for saltiness, depth of flavor and umami

The Process

The Almond Black Garlic Vinaigrette

If you don’t have a high-speed blender like the Vitamix* or Nutribullet*, you can either use almond butter and stir with a whisk or make a classic vinaigrette and add mashed Black Garlic to it. Because often oil is added to almond butter, it won’t be entirely oil free though.

Essentially throw the drained almonds, 1/2 cup of water and all the remaining dressing ingredients into your blender and blend until super smooth and creamy.

I have salt here in the picture, as I thought it needed extra, but found that the Tamari sauce is enough. Taste your dressing and adjust to suit you.

If you don’t have Black Garlic (go make some!) a honey-lemon vinaigrette with a fruity olive oil will work beautifully.

The Roasted Black Garlic Chicken

• Roast Black Garlic Chicken, Tomatoes and Bread Croutons
• Pre-heat your oven to 200C/400F
• Slice Black Garlic butter.
• Carefully lift the skin of the chicken breast off the meat, sliding your hands under it (I usually do this from the neck side, as the skin doesn’t rip as easy there.
• Stuff 2 slices of garlic butter under the skin of each breast
• Stuff rosemary and the juiced and zested lemon halves into the chicken cavity
• Smear most of the remaining butter all over the chicken and put it into large roasting tin*, larger than the chicken, so you can add the tomatoes halfway through the roasting
• After the chicken was in the oven for about 30min, take it out, tumble the tomatoes around it and swish in the juices a little.
• Add the rest of the garlic bulb, to have roast garlic later
• Once your chicken is beautiful golden brown and the juices run clear when cutting into the thickest part of the leg, take it out of the roasting tin on a plate and loosely cover with foil to rest.
• Depending on how your garlic bulb looks, you may want to take it out too at this point. If you see bit of golden brown on top of the cut parts, it’s ready
• Meanwhile, toss the bread pieces into the tin with the tomatoes and carefully turn them in the chicken-tomato juices, so they are evenly coated.
• Add back to the oven for another 10-15minutes, until the bread pieces are lightly golden brown on the tips. The goal is, to have the tops slightly crispy and the bottoms soak up most of the juices, but not burn bread or tomatoes. So, keep a close eye on them while you assemble your salad.

The Salad

• Marinate the sliced onion in the juice of 1 lemon, sprinkled with a bit of salt. It will go pretty and pink during the marinating and lose some of its sharpness.
• Cook sweetcorn for 10-15 minutes. Let it cool for a bit, then slice the kernels off the cobs with a sharp knife
• Blanch Broccoli florets for 3 minutes, then plunge into iced water
• Thinly slice garlic cloves and gently fry in olive oil until golden. Add salt, juice of 1 lemon and (if using) red pepper to oil. Leave to cool for a bit
• Drizzle the fragrant oil and garlic over your blanched broccoli and leave to stand for a while to marinate
• While the bread is in the oven and the chicken resting, assemble the salad
• Lay a bed of romaine into the bowl (or each plate).
• Top with sliced radishes.
• Drizzle with some of the Black Garlic Vinaigrette and toss thoroughly until all the leaves have a thin coating.
• Top with some of the sweetcorn, broccoli florets and peach slices.

Assemble

• Now carve your chicken into bite sized pieces
• Take the tin with bread croutons and tomatoes out of the oven.
• Spread crunchy croutons and juicy tomatoes over your salad
• Top with chicken pieces, some onion rings and creamy goats’ cheese.
• If you like, squish some roasted garlic out of its papery skin onto the chicken and the bread
• Drizzle with a little more of the vinaigrette and any of the delicious buttery chicken juices that might be left in the roasting tin

Meal Prep

For me, making big stunning salads like this one are, what helped me lose 70lb in a year. The whole thing comes together while the chicken is roasting. If you store the separate ingredients in containers, they keep fresh for several days. I usually quickly heat both chicken and bread with tomatoes (maybe the sweetcorn if you don’t like it cold) in a small Pyrex dish* in my air fryer* or oven, to re-crisp the bread. And it will all taste like freshly made. Maybe better, as the broccoli had time to marinate.

And with that 1h work on my weekend, I’m covered for the whole week dinner wise.

How to Transform Leftovers

If you get tired of bowls of salad (I sure don’t with this one), you could make wraps with the same ingredients. Or a sandwich with the chicken, lettuce, and tomatoes, have the rest on the side as small salad.

For more amazing Black Garlic Recipes check these:

Vegan Sumac Roasted Cauliflower Steaks with Black Garlic Mushroom Sauce

Addictive Black Garlic Aioli

The probably best Burger I ever had: Burger with Black Garlic Aioli

Black Garlic Mushroom Salad with Berries and Blue Cheese

Surprising Sourdough Oatmeal White Chocolate Chip Cookies with Black Garlic

Now I’d love to hear from you in the comments!

Have you tried this? Did you enjoy it?
What other recipes would you like to see?

If you enjoyed this recipe, please share. It helps me a lot.