Roast Chicken Salad with Brown Rice and Apple

Roast chicken is such a great staple dish and you can easily adjust how you serve it depending on the season. You can have it stuffed for a heartier meal or make it into a salad, like this one, and bring it along to lunch or summer picnic.

I started humbly, by roasting the chicken with some caramelised balsamic vinegar which I'm so fond of. I had some left over rice so I thought it will be much nicer with a bit of dressing. Once I took out my huge salad bowl I knew I was onto something much bigger than I had originally thought. But this is why I love cooking! Adding this and that, tasting, improvising and creating as I go make me feel like I'm painting or composing. I really think it's that drive to create that inspires so many of us bloggers!

The outcome is a balanced mix of flavours, and I feel like I changed the simple roast chicken with plain rice into something a bit more interesting and enjoyable :-)

Roast Chicken Salad with Brown Rice and Apple

1 free-range chicken (about 1,2 kgs)
Himalayan pink rock salt
freshly ground black pepper
4 tbsp caramelised balsamic vinegar

2 cups long grain brown rice, cooked
(preferably left over rice from the day before)
2 shallot greens, finely chopped
1 green apple, peeled, cored and cut into small dice
4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 tbsp lemon extra-virgin olive oil
1 tbsp sherry vinegar
1/4 tsp dry mustard
juice of 1 small lemon
Himalayan pink rock salt
freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 200C. Clean the chicken, rub with salt, pepper and balsamic and place in an oven bag or a roasting tin. Cook for 45 minutes or until cooked through. Remove from oven and let cool. Once cooled down shred the chicken into bite size pieces.

Place the rice in a large bowl, add the shallots and the apple. In a small bowl, mix together the oils, vinegar, mustard, lemon juice, salt and pepper and whisk well to combine. Pour the mixture onto the rice, add the chicken and toss everything well to combine. Place in the fridge for the flavours to develop.