This recipe is from the cookbook Rick Stein Secret France, from which I’ve cooked before when I made his lentil and duck confit salad last fall. I really like this British chef’s love of French food, although he’s a true gourmand and loves many different cuisines.

I was really taken with this salad because of the beautiful range of ingredients, from peppery to sweet, spicy and so forth. I couldn’t resist those roasted peaches. For fun, I drizzled the finished salad with Mike’s hot honey, and added cayenne pepper flakes. But that’s just me!

I also decided to use a zingy vinegar. It was perfect with this salad, along with some good olive oil.

The salad came out really well. It was light and flavorful. I wish I’d found some mangetout or something similar, but the green beans worked just fine.

Salad of Poached Chicken, Red Rice and Peaches

2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 banana shallots, finely chopped
1 teaspoon piment d’Espelette
10 ounces Camargue red rice
1 teaspoon salt
Handful flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
2 large rice peaches, or nectarines, halved
1 tablespoon runny honey (I used agave)
4 thin slices Bayonne ham (I used prosciutto)
5 ounces mangetout, blanched and refreshed (I used green beans)
2 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted
4 – 6 tablespoons classic vinaigrette
Salt and black pepper

Bring 24 ounces of water to a simmer in a wide pan. Add the chicken breasts and poach them for 10-12 minutes. Remove them and set them aside to oval, then slice on the diagonal. Reserve the liquid for cooking the rice. (I used chicken broth.)

In a large pan with a lid, heat the oil, add the shallot and piment d’Espelette and cook until softened. Add the rice, 22 ounces of the hot chicken poaching liquid and a teaspoon of salt, then cover with the lid and turn the heat down to a simmer. Cook for about 30 minutes until the liquid has been absorbed and the rice is tender. Leave the rice to stand with a lid on the pan for a further 10-15 minutes. Stir in most of the chopped parsley.

I completely skipped over this part accidentally, but I added the piment d’Espelette to the rice and the sliced chicken, and sprinkled the salad with the chopped shallots.

Meanwhile, put the fruit on a piece of foil and drizzle it with the honey. Season the fruit with a little black pepper and grill it under a medium heat for 6-8 minutes until it’s tender and brown around the edges. Set the fruit aside with its honey juices. Turn up the grill and grill the ham slices until crisp.

Spoon the rice on to a large platter and scatter over the green beans (or mangetout) and grilled fruit.

Add the sliced chicken, crisped ham, toasted pine nuts, and remaining parsley, then drizzle the vinaigrette all over.

Serve immediately.

I used arugula as the base layer for the salad, slightly wilted from some dressing. I wanted more greenery in the salad, and it worked very well.

Two comments – The prosciutto or Bayonne ham didn’t require frying, and honestly some rotisserie chicken would work really well!