I make this roast chicken breast salad when it's too hot to eat something warm: roast two chicken breasts (on the bone) with just a little salt, pepper and olive oil on them. At the same time, cook white (or brown) rice along with wild rice grains in part water, chicken stock and lemon juice. Also at the same time, saute 1 clove of garlic with the one fennel bulb, sliced, until transparent. Add fresh thyme and let cool. When the chicken is finished, remove from the bone and either chop neatly into cubes or shred. Toss the chicken, it's juices from the pan, the fennel, and rice together and top with a little more lemon juice. Serve at room temperature. It's perfect with a crusty piece of bread and a cool glass of pinot.
hollllllyyyy schnikesssss, this sounds sooooooo delicious.
I made this yesterday, but I changed it around a little. I roasted the chicken breast with tons of balsamic vinegar (the cheap stuff, because you roast it for about an hour); cooked the rice in just water cuz I was out of stock; chopped the fennel raw to keep it really light and crisp; added the juice of three lemons and the zest of one and fresh rosemary and marjoram, chopped finely, into the finished salad. I used one of those gravy-fat separators to separate the juice from the roasting pan, then added almost all of the remaining balsamic/chicken juice mixture. It's really tangy and sweet at the same time. Perfect for a 100 degree afternoon.