This Harissa chicken & bulgur wheat salad combines smoky, spicy harissa paste, fresh herbs, and a zesty dressing to help refuel glycogen stores after a long run. It can be prepared in advance, so plan ahead and stay on top of your game.
What is Rose Harissa?
The word “Harissa” has roots in Arabic, with “Harasa” meaning “to break into pieces.” This phrasing refers to pounding the chilli when making the paste.
It’s typically made from roasted peppers, a Tunisian chilli known as Baklouti pepper, herbs, and spices. These herbs and spices typically include garlic, cumin, coriander, and caraway seeds, blended with olive oil, which easily absorbs the spices’ flavours.
Rose Harissa is a Harissa paste, as described above, but infused with fried rose petals or rose water. Rose adds a greater depth of flavour to the paste, with a fruit-like sweetness that complements the spicy chilli. It’s important to note that while rose and harissa may appear synonymous, not all harissa is rose harissa. While you can use any harissa paste you want, this Harissa chicken salad was designed using rose harissa.
Ingredients for Harissa Chicken & Bulgur Wheat Salad
Chicken Breast—Chicken breast is an excellent source of lean protein, meaning it’s low in fat. This is perfect for keeping calories down and helps us rebuild our muscles after an intense workout. For this recipe, butterflying the breasts helps keep the cooking time down while ensuring the meat cooks more evenly. You can learn how to butterfly chicken breasts here.
Bulgur Wheat – Bulgur wheat comes in various sizes, but I tend to use the medium-grain variety, which is typically sold as standard in most UK supermarkets. It’s a great source of complex carbohydrates, helping to replenish our glycogen stores.
Quinoa – This superfood grain contains all nine amino acids and provides another source of complex carbohydrates. As far as grains go, they’re perfect for aiding our recovery. You can use cooked quinoa, or you can prepare it yourself. Any colour variety of quinoa would work here, but I like the red variety as it has a nuttier flavour.
Herbs, Vegetables, & Pomegranates—Here, you can get creative with your veggies and make this salad your own. Herbs offer a variety of flavours and are worth experimenting with. However, pomegranate seeds provide antioxidants that help repair the damage caused by oxidative stress.
Preserved Lemon Vinaigrette
Preserved lemons come in many forms, prepared with different varieties of lemons. However, I’ve designed this recipe with the preserved thin-skinned variety called Beldi in mind. These preserved lemons can be found in many recipes across Northern Africa. They add savoury, sweet, and aromatic notes to dishes.
Lemons are naturally quite tart, so they need a little honey to sweeten them. However, that’s not the biggest issue with preserved lemons because they can also be a little salty, owing to the way they’re preserved. It’s recommended to wash them before using them in this harissa chicken salad to remove excess salt. And as always, add salt to the dressing to taste.
To make the dressing, rinse the salty preserved lemons and lightly blitz them in a food processor. Add all the listed ingredients to the food processor and blend until the mixture reaches the required consistency. This comes down to personal preference, however. I prefer a smoother dressing, so I blitz the mix a little longer.
Harissa Chicken & Bulgur Wheat Salad
Ingredients
For the Chicken
- 4 Chicken Breasts Butterflied
- 4 Cloves of Garlic Crushed
- Zest & Juice from 1 Lemon
- 2 Tbsp Harissa
- 1 Tbsp Paprika
- 1 Tsp Salt
- 1 Tsp Black Pepper
For the Bulgur Wheat
- 120 g Bulgur Wheat
- 120 g Red Quinoa
- 25 g Fresh Parsley Chopped
- 25 g Fresh Mint Chopped
- 2 Tomatoes De-seeded, Finely Chopped
- 1 Red Pepper Finely Diced
- ½ Cucumber Deseeded, Finely Chopped
- Seeds from ½ Pomegranate
For The Dressing
- Juice from 1 Lemon
- 1 Preserved Lemon Seeds Removed
- 1 Tsp Runny Honey
- 1 Tsp Dried Oregano
- 1 Tsp Black Pepper
- Salt to taste
- 75 ml Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Instructions
- Mix the garlic, lemon zest, lemon juice, harissa, paprika, salt, pepper, and olive oil in a bowl. Coat the chicken breasts evenly and let them marinate for at least 30 minutes, preferably overnight.
- Cook the bulgur wheat and quinoa according to package instructions. Drain and allow to cool slightly before fluffing with a fork.
- Combine the chopped parsley, mint, tomatoes, red peppers, and cucumber in a large mixing bowl. Add the cooled bulgur and quinoa and mix well.
- To make the dressing, rinse the salty preserved lemons and lightly blitz them in a food processor. Add all the remaining ingredients listed for the dressing to the food processor and blend until smooth.
- Heat a grill pan or skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the chicken on each side for 7-8 minutes until fully cooked.
- Allow the chicken to rest for a few minutes before slicing.
- Toss the salad with the dressing, then arrange onto plates. Top with the sliced chicken, then finish with the pomegranate seeds.
Leave a ReplyCancel reply