chicken salad

this IS the best ever chicken salad i found in a magazine. from jamie oliver of course.

take a whole chicken, drizzle with olive oil and spice, then roast for 1 hour at 180° celsius in a large roasting dish.

take a whole ciabatta loaf and roughly break into pieces. remove the chicken from the oven and arrange the bread pieces in the roasting dish around the chicken. roast for a further 30 minutes. the bread pieces now become lovely croutons.

allow the chicken to cool and roughly tear into pieces.

while the chicken is in the oven, roast 500g of rosa tomatoes drizzled with olive oil. this will take about 20 minutes. allow to cool, reserving the juices.

fry until crispy a 250g packet of bacon, drain, cut into bite size pieces and allow to cool.

form a salad base of 500g rocket leaves and a handful of mint leaves. top with the chicken chunks, croutons, bacon and roast tomatoes and toss lightly. to the reserved tomato juice, add a dash of balsamic vinegar and use this as dressing for the salad. add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

a brilliant meal-in-one!