Colm O'Gorman: Try my harissa chicken sandwich with lemon slaw and chilli mayo

I came up with this one evening when I spotted some leftover Yemeni chilli sauce in the fridge.

Some of my favourite recipes are meals that I came up with on the spur of the moment, meals that were put together based upon whatever I happened to have in the fridge, or to hand. 

This week’s recipe is a brilliant example of that. Do not be daunted by how exotic this dish might sound, all you need is chicken, some harissa paste, a few spices, and everyday ingredients you likely have in your fridge or cupboard most of the time.

I came up with this one evening when I spotted some leftover Yemeni chilli sauce in the fridge from the falafel recipe I shared a few weeks back. I thought it would be beautiful combined with some mayonnaise and served in a chicken sandwich. I was right, it is wonderful. 

If you do not want to make the chilli sauce from scratch, you could use some sriracha mixed with mayonnaise, but if you can take the few extra minutes needed to make my lovely Yemeni chilli sauce, it is well worth the effort. It is a beautiful fresh, herby sauce that looks and tastes beautiful in this sandwich. It will store for a few weeks in the fridge in a clean jar and is very easy to make. You will find the recipe on ieFood.

The chicken is marinated in lemon zest and juice, cumin, grated garlic, olive oil, salt and harissa paste and then pan-fried. It is served in a brioche bun, atop a bed of simple slaw made from shredded white cabbage, lemon juice, olive oil, and salt, and then topped with a chill mayonnaise and some red pickled onions. I use boneless skinless chicken thighs for this recipe as I find they give the best flavour, but you can use chicken breast if you prefer. Just slice the breasts in half and then use a rolling pin or meat mallet to lightly pound them to get two pieces of roughly equal size and thickness.

This recipe serves four people.

Harissa Chicken

recipe by:Colm O'Gorman

This mouth-watering dish is a brilliant example of using ingredients you already have in your fridge or cupboard

Servings

4

Preparation Time

 45 mins

Cooking Time

 25 mins

Total Time

 1 hours 10 mins

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• 4-6 boneless skinless chicken thighs

• 2 cloves garlic

• 1 ½ tsp ground cumin

• Zest and juice of a lemon

• 2 tsp harissa paste

• 1 tsp flaky sea salt

• 2 tbsp olive oil

• Lemon slaw

• ¼ head white cabbage

• Juice of half a lemon

• Splash of extra virgin olive oil

• Salt to season

• To serve

• 4 brioche buns

• Some pickled red onions

• 6 tbsp mayonnaise

• 2-3 tsp Yemeni chilli sauce or sriracha

Method

1. Prepare the chicken by trimming away any excess fat and then make the marinade.

2. Grate the garlic into a bowl big enough to hold the chicken and add the grated lemon zest and juice, ground cumin, harissa paste, olive oil and salt. Stir well to combine and add the chicken, coating it thoroughly. Set aside for thirty minutes to allow the meat to marinade.

3. If you want to make some pickled red onion for your sandwiches, dissolve 50g of caster sugar in 100ml of white wine vinegar and add a pinch of flaky sea salt.

4. Peel and very thinly slice a red onion, place it in a bowl and pour over the vinegar. Let that pickle away while you prepare the rest of the dish.

5. To make the slaw, finely shred the white cabbage and pop that into a bowl, add the lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil, just a splash, you do not want the slaw to be too wet, and a pinch of flaky sea salt. Taste and add more salt if needed.

6. When the chicken has had thirty minutes in the marinade, heat a non-stick frying pan over a high heat. When it is good and hot, reduce the heat to medium and put the chicken in the pan. Use a spoon to add the rest of the marinade to the top of the pieces of chicken.

7. Cook for four to five minutes and then turn over the pieces of chicken. Cook for about the same time on the other side until the chicken is cooked through. If you have a meat thermometer, take the chicken to 74° Celsius and it will be perfectly cooked.

8. When it is done, remove the chicken from the heat. The marinade will have charred a little which is delicious, so make sure to get all those bits out and onto the chicken before you make up your sandwiches.

9. Lightly toast the brioche buns. Divide the slaw between the buns, and then place the chicken on top of the slaw. I use one to two pieces of thighs per serving, depending upon how hungry everyone is and what sides I am serving.

10. Mix the mayonnaise and chilli sauce together in a bowl until they are thoroughly combined. Taste and add more chilli sauce if you would like a little more heat.

11. Spoon the chilli mayonnaise over the chicken, and then top that off with some red pickled onions and the other half of the brioche bun.

12. Serve with chips or a side salad and some fresh pickled cucumber on the side.