“I never dream in French, but certain French words seem better or more fun than English words – like ‘pois chiches’ for chick peas!”
Lydia Davis
This is my go-to recipe for what to do with cooked leftover chicken. I’ve experimented with it over the years – almonds, turmeric and cinnamon all go well.
I also often used preserved lemon, but the chief taster says this method of producing a sort of caramelised lemon and incorporating that instead results in a ‘brighter, fresher’ effect.
You can also experiment with adding pistachios, cardamom, cinnamon and cloves, and coriander…instead of the black olives and feta… makes it rather middle-eastern.
Go-to, super-quick recipe for leftover chicken with chickpeas and black olives
Serves 2
Ingredients
- 1 onion
- 100g/4 oz (or what you have) cooked chicken
- Olive oil for frying
- freshly ground black pepper
- 2 cloves of garlic, crushed with 1 tsp smoked salt
- 1 400g/14 oz tin of chickpeas
- 12 pitted black olives
- 200g/8 oz feta (if you don’t have any you can use yoghurt)
- 1 lemon
- 1 tbsp honey
- A few leaves of lettuce (not a disaster if these are not to hand)
- Whatever herbs you have to hand – tarragon ideally
- 80ml/⅓ cup dry or pink vermouth
Method
- Take the lettuce out of the fridge.
- Peel and chop the onion and begin to fry gently.
- Cut the lemon into four, put in a corner of the frying pan peel side down, and drizzle over the honey, try not to disturb it too much – don’t stir it in with everything else.
- When it looks as if the onion is nearly done, add the garlic.
- Season. TASTE!!!
- Drain the chickpeas, add to the onion, stir to mix. Add the vermouth
- Just before you are due to serve, reduce the heat, crumble the feta into quite large chunks, stir it through and then take the whole off the heat.
- Tear in the lettuce leaves.
- Serve.