Photography: John Paul Urizar. Styling: Michele Cranston. Photochef: Kathy Knudsen.
Celebrate spring with this light and nutritious chicken and quinoa salad, an easy dinner for two. A simple combination of poached chicken, quinoa, avocado and fragrant herbs will have this recipe at the top of your ‘cook it again’ list.
Ingredients
You’ll need these…
Start cooking with these ingredient essentials.
Method
Place the quinoa and the water in a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 10 minutes or until the water is absorbed and the quinoa is tender. Transfer to a bowl and season.
Meanwhile, for the dressing, combine the lemon juice and oil in a jug and season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Place the stock and extra water in a small-to-medium saucepan – the chicken should fit snugly; bring to the boil. Add the chicken and reserved lemon rind and reduce the heat until the stock is barely simmering. Cook, uncovered, for 8 minutes. Turn chicken and cook for a further 5-7 minutes or until chicken is just cooked through. Remove chicken from liquid and shred into large pieces using two forks. Discard lemon rind.
Stir half the dressing into the quinoa and season. Spoon onto serving plates. Top quinoa salad with the tomato, chicken, herbs, onion and avocado. Spoon the remaining dressing into the avocado halves; season with salt and pepper to serve.
Make this salad even faster
For even speedier prep, make this quinoa salad using a barbecued chicken, instead of poached.
Interested in more quick dinners with barbecued chicken?
Do I have to poach the chicken for this quinoa salad?
If you prefer to pan-fry the chicken rather than poach, split the chicken breasts in half and season well. Pan-fry with a little olive oil for 2-3 minutes each side or until just cooked through. Slice before adding to the quinoa salad.
