What makes this tandoori chicken salad different from the rest
Poached, chilled chicken breast is a protein-packed blank canvas that's primed to take on just about any palette of flavor and texture you can conjure.
This chicken salad recipe makes the most of that invitation. Its dressing, inspired by a tandoori marinade, is spiked with big, bold flavors: garlic, ginger, coriander, turmeric, cumin, salt and both black and cayenne peppers. The spices are forward and exciting, but they work harmoniously without being overwhelming. Plus, they impart not only flavor, but also color and texture to the dish.
The garlic and salt are mashed together to form a paste, so rather than encounter strong bits of the allium here and there, you get a gentle undertone of it throughout. Whole cumin seed, which is toasted until fragrant and crushed a bit, does the job of providing random bursts of flavor and texture, and turmeric gives the salad dressing an enticing golden hue.
Another cue taken from tandoori cooking, in which yogurt is used as the marinade base, is that in this recipe, yogurt forms the creamy foundation of the dressing. Besides providing silky body and a light tanginess that plays well off the spices, it gives the dressing a comfort-food-creamy effect with a fraction of the mayonnaise typically used, and with considerably more nutritional punch.
The dressing is tossed with the tender chunks of chicken along with cool, crisp slices of cucumber and a generous sprinkling of fresh cilantro leaves, for a chicken salad that is both striking and sumptuously satisfying.
• Ellie Krieger blogs and offers a weekly newsletter at www.elliekrieger.com.