Mango Chicken Salad with Lime and Coriander Mayonnaise

I will stretch this out to a week’s worth of lunches but you might want to add more chicken and spices if you think you will need more sustenance.  When you make mayonnaise from scratch you realise just how much oil is in there!  However, you can also make sure that you only put in the oil that you like and have much more control over the flavour.  The mint and mango combination reminds me of mojitos – delicious!

Makes 4 – 5 lunches

For the chicken

3 chicken breasts

1 tsp dried thyme

2 small or 1 large clove of garlic

1 tsp smoked paprika

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1 pinch of cayenne pepper

salt and pepper

For the lime mayonnaise

1 medium sized egg

1/4 tsp salt

10 tbsp olive oil (or other light oil of your choice)

1/2 lime

1 large handful of coriander leaves

For the salad

1 large red pepper

1 courgette

250g mango chunks

small handful of mint

1/2 lime

100g baby leaf spinach

1. Preheat the oven to 200C
2. Put slashes 4 into the chicken each side going against the grain so that it will cook quicker and you can get more flavour into it.
3. Add the thyme, spices and seasoning and rub into the meat.
4. Crush over the garlic and push it into the slashes in the meat.
5. Place the chicken breasts in a small roasting tray and put in the oven for 12 minutes each side.
6. While the chicken is cooking, prepare the mayonnaise.
7. Crack the egg into a food processor and add the salt.  Blend the mixture and add the oil, one tablespoon at a time until the mixture is thickened but not too firm.  We want it to be a dressing and not a dipping sauce.
8. Add the juice from the lime half and coriander and blitz again until all of the ingredients are mixed and the coriander is chopped finely.
9. Now for the salad.  Chop the pepper into 5 mm strips discarding the centre with the seeds.  Chop each strip in half so they are easier to eat without chopping.
10. Chop the courgette lengthways and using a mandolin, thinly slice so that you have half moons.
11. Finely chop the mint and chop the mango into bite sized chunks if it isn’t small enough already.  Add all of the salad ingredients into a bowl.  Squeeze in the other half of the lime and toss to dress.
12. When the time is up, check the chicken is completely cooked through otherwise return it to the oven and keep checking every 2 minutes.  It should be white all the way through with no pink.
13. Leave the chicken to rest for 5 minutes before serving.
14. If you want to serve the chicken warm then chop it into bitesized pieces, otherwise leave it to cool and rip along the grain and the slashes.
15. Serve the chicken on top of the salad and drizzle over the mayonnaise dressing.