Cockerel doodle-do
For as long as I can remember, Sunday is the only day of the week that provides me with some semblance of a routine. And one constant is a weekly food shop that almost always involves buying a whole chicken.
Taking the time to prepare a whole chicken not simply for roasting is a luxury I enjoy a lot. I have developed different methods, but the result is generally three meals for two people – one meal from the breast meat, one from the thigh meat and a broth from the bones.
This recipe uses cockerel, which is generally perceived as being tough and gamy. However, I find they produce a much better broth and the flavour is more robust, lending itself to salads of this style. Cockerel is very unlikely to come from an industrial farm due to their slow growth rate and less “desirable” characteristics. If you can’t source cockerel, a quality whole chicken will also work.
I have only just come around to liking citrus in salads (possibly my aversion was due to some jarring combinations made fashionable in the ’80s) and here a pomelo is the best to use as the body of the salad. Pomelos have a much more restrained taste – not as sour as grapefruit, not as sweet as orange – but with enough fibre to hold some fairly sturdy flavour.
The seasoning and style for this salad is closest to Thai but it is by no means completely authentic, so swap and substitute ingredients as you see fit. Chilli is a great addition, as is coconut milk. But when the chicken and the pomelo are at their peak I rarely feel the need to raise
• the flavour stakes.