Chicken and Mango Salad

I'm already thinking about salads. It's usually some point in July when all I want to eat is salad, but the mood might have started early this year. Or, maybe this is just a way of planning ahead. I'll have one more go-to salad when the heat of summer has gotten serious. Either way, this is a healthy, light meal with big, bright flavor. The dressing is a puree of diced, fresh mango, cilantro leaves, mint leaves, curry powder, white wine vinegar, and olive oil. It seems much more rich and decadent than it is since the thickness of the dressing comes from the mango. The idea came from the book Power Foods which is full of dishes like this that have great flavor and are good for you at the same time. I made a slight change to the dressing recipe. I used a flavored extra-virgin olive oil. I had received some products to sample from Corners of Time, and their Meyer lemon olive oil worked beautifully with the mango, herbs, and curry powder. Also, I used arugula rather than watercress as suggested for the salad, but both are peppery greens well-suited to the fruity dressing, grilled chicken, and avocado. 

This salad was a snap to construct. First, the chicken was marinated for a few hours in a mix of olive oil, white wine vinegar, and Dijon mustard before being grilled and sliced. The dressing was made in the blender, and mango, cilantro, mint, curry powder, and salt and pepper were pureed. Then, with the motor running, olive oil was slowly added until emulsified. My curry powder wasn't particularly spicy, so I added a pinch of cayenne after tasting. Fresh mango was used here, but thawed, frozen mango chunks would be fine. The salad was built with a layer of arugula or watercress topped with sliced chicken and avocado. The dressing was spooned over the chicken and a few herb leaves were scattered on the plate. The simple, few ingredients in the salad were just enough since there was so much flavor in the dressing.

I was delighted with this dressing and its texture, and I started imagining other uses for it. It's thick enough that it could be used in place of mayonnaise in the regular kind of chicken salad. It would also pair well with crab or shrimp, and it would work perfectly as a dipping sauce. Obviously, I'll be pulling out the blender to whip up this dressing repeatedly all summer long.

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