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Recipe Detail Page
Orange-Infused Chicken Couscous Salad
Early Summer 2010
Bright sunny flavours of chicken, orange and mint make this salad delicious warm or cold.You can serve this with or without the arugula, or try baby spinach instead. Poaching the chicken in the orange juice mixture helps infuse the chicken with more flavour than just using an orange dressing.
Serves 4 to 6
2 cups (500 mL) orange juice
1 shallot, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 fresh thyme sprigs
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts,
about 1 lb (500 g)
½ cup (125 mL) chicken stock
1¼ cups (300 mL) couscous
1 small red or orange pepper, chopped
2 green onions, sliced
¼ cup (50 mL) chopped fresh mint
¼ cup (50 mL) diced dried apricots
2 tbsp (25 mL) extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp (25 mL) seasoned rice vinegar
or apple cider vinegar
6 cups (1.5 L) lightly packed baby arugula
Salt and pepper
1. Bring 1 cup (250 mL) of the orange juice, shallot, garlic and thyme to boil in a skillet. Add chicken breasts, cover and simmer for about10 minutes, turning once, or until no longer pink inside. Set aside.
2. Bring remaining orange juice and stock to boil in a saucepan and add couscous. Remove from heat, cover and let stand for 5 minutes. Using a fork, fluff couscous into a large bowl.Add pepper, green onions, mint and apricots.
3. Remove chicken breasts from orange mixture and chop into bite-size pieces. Add to couscous. Remove thyme sprigs from skillet and bring remaining orange juice mixture to boil for 2 minutes or until almost all the juice is evaporated. Whisk in oil and vinegar and pour over couscous and chicken mixture. Toss to coat evenly and season with salt and pepper.
4. Divide arugula among plates and spoon couscous salad overtop to serve.
Serves 4 to 6
