Herb and Orange Chicken with Pineapple and Capsicum served with Pomegranate, Orange and Baby Spinach Salad

February 2nd, 2010

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We are so lucky in Australia with our beautiful range of lovely, fresh fruit and vegetables. The pineapples this year have been spectacularly sweet and perfect. I haven’t been able to go past them in the supermarkets or fruit shops.

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Then there is the trouble of trying not to eat an entire pineapple between two people in one sitting! It’s so tempting and lovely, the only reason I am able to stop myself is because I know I’ll want some the next day too!

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Pineapples go well in fruit salads and a lot of sweet dishes and desserts, although surprisingly goes perfectly well with a fruit inspired, partly savoury, main meal.

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One particular reason for my trial of this dish was to broaden the variety of salads I will eat, along with using some pomegranate seeds, which I haven’t really experimented with that much.

All in all, the flavours work beautifully together and this is a lovely summer dinner. It tastes like a wonderfully healthy main meal with great textures and flavours.

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Herb and Orange Chicken with Pineapple and Capsicum served with Pomegranate, Orange and Baby Spinach Salad

Recipes by me – Anita @ Leave Room for Dessert

Herb and Orange Chicken

Serves: 4

2 chicken breasts (cut through or left whole)
1 orange, juiced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 sprigs parsley, chopped
6 chives, chopped
3 oregano leaves, chopped
18 leaves basil, chopped
1 tablespoon honey

Place all ingredients in a bowl and marinate overnight.

Heat a non-stick pan on medium/high and cook the chicken on both sides, until cooked through. (Slice the chicken through the middle, if you would prefer to make the cooking easier and quicker)

Pomegranate, Orange and Baby Spinach Salad

Serves: 4

2 handfuls baby spinach
1/2 pomegranate, seeded (60 seeds juiced or popped to get 2 teaspoons)
2 orange (1 segmented, 1 juiced)
1 teaspoon caster sugar

Place the washed baby spinach on a plate. Mix the sugar with the juice of half the orange and the teaspoon of pomegranate juice for dressing. Place the orange segments and pomegranate seeds on the spinach. Pour dressing over salad.

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Pineapple and Capsicum addition

Serves: 4
1 red capscium, diced
2 slices pineapple diced
1-2 slices pineapple, cut into quarters (optional – for cooking with the chicken to get caramelised pineapple)

Place combined capsicum and pineapple on the cooked chicken.

If you are caramelising some pineapple, add it to the pan with the half cooked chicken (so it’s not cooking in raw meat juice), or cook separately on medium heat until both sides of the pineapple are caramelised.

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10 Comments

  1. Barbara says:

    I would love someone to place that plate in front of me! It’s beaautiful. Those colors! There’s nothing like fresh fruit and it’s fun to use the pomegrante arils- such a burst of flavor as well as being pretty.
    Your chicken is flavored perfectly. This looks complicated, but when you read through, it really isn’t!
    Super meal, Anita!

  2. Isabella says:

    That looks so delicious and healthy, I certainly could eat some of that!!

  3. Looks lovely and summery!

  4. I love the colours in this and aren’t we supposed to eat really colourful food to get all of our vitamins? I can’t think of a more pleasurable way to eat it than this! 😀

  5. Juliana says:

    Oh Anita! The color of both dishes are just so inviting…the combination of ingredients are amazing…I absolutely love the sweetness of fruit in salad. Nice pictures 🙂

  6. Here’s to healthy and delicious salads. They look amazing!

  7. Besides being a wonderful salad, it is definitely a showcase of talent – a beautiful play of colors and a great blend of flavors.

    Sawadee from bangkok,
    Kris

  8. Cakelaw says:

    What a beautiful looking salad!

  9. Jeanne says:

    The colors are phenomenal! And I’m sure it tastes wonderful! It gives me a glimpse of summer while we are in the middle of winter here.

  10. wow, those colours are just amazing. I’m sure I would NEVER get bored if I got salads like this. The textures would be pretty amazing too!!

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