Chargrilled Chicken and Sweet Potato Salad

Being a chef it was always my intention of creating a place online where I could share my passion for food and photography. Previously it's been on Instagram or Facebook, but I feel like my food deserves better than a single photo post and I get asked all too often to share recipes that get buried in the comments. I hope the recipe below is the first in a very long series of personally created recipes I post on here! 

The real star in this recipe is the simple marinade that also doubles as a dressing!

This dish is based on a magazine cover I saw, I have no idea what the dish on the cover was, I simply saw grilled sweet potato and wanted it! So I created this stunning salad, bursting with fresh limes and a sweet hint of honey that hit all the right notes; and cured my craving for chargrilled sweet potatoes. I hope you enjoy this as much as we did! 

Toasted sourdough bread drizzled in olive oil is a lovely side with this salad

Chargrilled Chicken & Sweet Potato Salad

Serves: 4
Prep time: 1 hour (+ marinating time)

You'll Need:

• 2 chicken breast fillets, trimmed
• 1 medium sweet potato
• 2 cups baby spinach (or your favourite greens)
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1-2tsp Sambal Oelek
• 3tbs honey
• 1/4C fresh lime juice, 2 tbs reserved (about 2 limes)
• Zest of two limes, reserve half
• 1/4C olive oil, plus extra for cooking
• 1/3C mayonnaise
• 1/3C pepitas
• Chopped parsley, to serve

Cooking Instructions:

1. Combine the garlic, Sambal Oelek, Honey, 1/4C lime juice, half the zest, and the oil into a glass bowl or jar. Season with salt and pepper as desired and stir or shake until well mixed. 
2. Combine the chicken plus half the marinade in a glass bowl, stir to coat. Then cover and refrigerate for 2-4 hours to marinate.
3. Slice the sweet potato in half, lengthways, then slice into 1cm slices. Combine half of the reserved marinade in a bowl with the sweet potato and toss well to coat all the slices.
4. Preheat the oven to 180C. Using a cast-iron or other heavy-based frying pan; char the sweet potato slices over medium-high heat in batches for about 3 minutes on each side or until they are caramelized and have nice grill marks on both sides. Place them onto a baking sheet in a single layer and bake in the oven for about 20-25 minutes or until done.
5. While the sweet potatoes are baking, chargrill the chicken breasts in the same pan for around 10-12 minutes on each side or until done. Allow it to rest for 5 minutes before slicing each breast into 1cm slices.
6. Combine the mayo with the reserved lime juice and zest to make the dressing. Season with salt and pepper. 
7. Layer your serving dish with fresh baby spinach then the sweet potatoes topped off with the sliced chicken. Scatter the pepitas over then drizzle with reserved marinade and the dressing.
8. Sprinkle with parsley and serve with your favourite crunchy toasted bread. Enjoy!

This salad is picture-perfect for lunch or a light dinner!

Tips: 

• You can add more or less Sambal Olek depending on your preference (Sambal is an Indonesian chili sauce or paste typically made from a mixture of a variety of chili peppers with secondary ingredients such as shrimp paste, garlic, ginger, shallot, scallion, palm sugar, and lime juice.)
  
  
• Despite looking very complicated, this is actually a super simple salad to make. If you want a faster version, you can slice the chicken breasts before marinating so they cook faster. I actually had some enormous chicken breasts and cooked them whole in my charcoal barrel smoker over low coals for almost 3 hours. It's absolutely not necessary to do this but I love any excuse to cook outdoors!
  
  
• You can also swap out the limes for lemon juice and zest, but the combination of lime and honey is divine. 

There is also a video of this recipe coming and I will post it here as soon as it is done!

If you have any questions or comments about the recipe please leave me a comment below. 

Oh, and don't forget to subscribe if you love great food, travel, & the outdoors! There is plenty more on the way, plus a few other surprises! I'm excited about it already!