Oven-cooked deboned chicken thigh on bread with fennel salad and NQN’s Thai dressing

I was reading Lorraine’s blog this morning and she described a fennel salad and a Thai-style dressing. It looked really good. #NotQuiteNigella I’ve adapted Lorraine’s recipe.  

Ingredients

• Chicken thigh sans femur
• Bread (1 slice)
• Iodised salt
• Whole black peppercorns (1 tablespoon)
• Fennel
• Red onion
• Parsley
• Mint
• Cherry tomatoes
• Icing sugar (1 tablespoon)
• Fish sauce (3 tablespoons)
• Garlic (grated)
• Lime juice (3 tablespoons)
• Warm water (1 tablespoon)

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to about 200 °C.
2. Take a chicken thigh from the refrigerator and with a sharp knife dissect out the femur.
3. Put a piece of bread on a baking sheet and put the deboned chicken thigh on the bread with the skin-side up.
4. Add some iodised salt to the skin.
5. Put the chicken and bread into the oven for about 40 minutes so the juices and fat from the chicken will impregnate the bread and effectively leave you with a piece of fried bread with a crunchy crust and exposed bits.
6. With a mandolin and wearing a safety glove slice the fennel and red onion and put into a salad bowl.
7. Chop some parsley and add to the salad bowl.
8. Halve some cherry tomatoes and add to the salad bowl.
9. Grind the whole black peppercorns in a mortar with a pestle to give the salad a nice kick.
10. To a tablespoon of warm water add a tablespoon of icing sugar and then add the fish sauce and lime juice.
11. Mix the grated garlic to the salad dressing.
12. Mix the salad and dress with the Not Quite Nigella Thai-style.
13. When the chicken is ready, transfer the golden brown chicken on the crispy ‘fried’ bread to a dinner plate and then with tongs add the salad next to it. Garnish the salad with mint leaves and fronds from the fennel.
14. I’d use a steak knife to cut the chicken so it includes the bread.