Grilled pesto chicken with avocado salad

Dinner last night was a beauty. I just made the recipe up; its not exactly rocket science, but oh boy did it taste good. Recreate for yourself as follows:

~150g lean chicken breast, sliced into strips
~1 tablespoon pesto (I used Leggos)
~2 tablespoons natural yoghurt
~2 cups baby rocket leaves (arugula)
~1/2 punnet cherry or grape tomatos, halved
~1 small ripe avocado, sliced
~1 small (Lebanese) cucumber, sliced
~1/2 a fresh lemon
~1 clove garlic, finely diced
~1 tablespoon good quality white wine vinegar
~1 tablespoon quality olive oil (I am currently loving Jingilli olive oil)

Method:

Combine the pesto with the yoghurt and stir through the chicken. Leave to marinate for 30 mins to 4 hours (optional). Cook the chicken in a very hot non-stick frying pan, wok, or on a grill (BBQ is best) until just cooked through – approximately 3-4 mins. Set to one side.

Combine the salad ingredients in a large bowl. Sprinkle garlic on top. Squeeze over the juice of half a lemon (important to coat the avocado so it doesn’t go brown) and then add olive oil and vinegar. Toss well. Season with salt and cracked black pepper to taste and if desired add more oil or vinegar to balance the acidity to your liking. Place the chicken pieces ontop of the salad and serve.

This dish serves 2 as a main course or could be served as  a side dish or a starter. Approx calories as a main are: chicken (120); salad (200). To reduce the calories in this dish omit the avocado and substitue with diced green capsicum (bell pepper). To increase the calories and really make this dish something special, add 1/4 cup of shelled pistachios.

I served this dish with a full-bodied red wine: 2004 Three Hills sangiovese. This wine was a good, but not great accompaniment to the salad. If anything, the alcohol and fruit in the wine overpowered the gentle flavours of the dish, but the robustness of the wine went nicely with the theme of the salad. I should have decanted this wine, but foolishly didn’t.