If you have lots of roast chicken left over from Sunday dinner, don't toss it into a bin – toss it into this simple salad recipe
featuring raisins and pine nuts, then follow with a delicious chocolate cake, writes DOMINI KEMP

I’M A DEVIL FOR stripping every shard of cooked meat from the chicken bones after we’ve had a roast chicken for dinner and then leaving it in the fridge for a couple of days. Eventually it’ll get chucked into something, but I’m a little disappointed at myself for not making a more interesting supper out of it, as cold roast chicken on its own isn’t great unless it’s going into a sandwich or bound in some sort of tasty dressing.

This chicken recipe will be in the memory bank for the next time this happens because it’s the perfect salad for using up all those little bits of leftovers. It’s also made with plenty of store-cupboard ingredients such as pine nuts, capers, raisins and a few bits of bread that can be stale as anything, as they only need a bit of toasting into the oven to make hearty croutons. Lots of parsley livens up the dressing and, all totalled, this makes one satisfying supper. It’s also delicious – but not as handy – if you buy raw chicken breasts and decide to saute bite-sized chunks of them for a similar, but even tastier, result.

When you start looking at simple components of such a salad, it’s also interesting to look at the benefits that come with such basic ingredients. The two that stick out are the raisins and pine nuts. The former contain the photochemical compound resveratrol, which is anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer, with blood cholesterol-lowering activities. They also contain a decent amount of fibre and are full of minerals like calcium, iron, manganese, magnesium, copper, fluoride and zinc as well as being a good source of B-complex vitamins.

Not bad for a handful of dried grapes which really add such lovely sweetness to anything like cous cous, quinoa and this savoury chicken salad.

Now, onto the pine-nuts. Rather naively, I’ve never thought too much about where “pine” nuts come from. According to my research (OK, the Internet) pine trees grow in the wild, cold, forest regions of the northern hemisphere, particularly in Siberia and Canada. The flowers develop into cones which can take up to two to three years and, eventually, these cones open up to release the seeds.

We all know that nuts in moderate quantities are great for you and full of the really great mono-unsaturated fatty acids such as oleic acid and pinolenic acid. Like almonds (which are contained in the chocolate cake with lime), pines are an excellent source of vitamin E and other essential minerals.

Chicken, raisin and pine-nut salad

Serves 2-4

75g raisins

100ml olive oil

100-200g bread, torn into chunks

400g leftover chicken or 2 chicken breasts

40g pine nuts

2 tbsp capers

200g salad leaves

Big bunch flat leaf parsley

Dressing

3 tbsp sherry vinegar

1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

Salt and pepper

Squeeze honey

120ml olive oil

Preheat an oven to 150 degrees/gas 2. Soak the raisins in hot water to plump up and then drain. Toss the bread in some olive oil and season. Bake until crisp and golden brown.

Toast the pine nuts for a few minutes until light golden brown.

You can saute the chicken pieces in olive oil and season well; if cooked already, you don’t need to, but it will make the end dish taste much better.

In a bowl, toss together the chicken and bread, add the raisins, pine nuts, parsley and capers. Then add some dressing and, finally, add in the leaves, some more dressing and toss and serve.

Or you can simply toss some of the salad leaves together, and separately toss the chicken with the bread etc and small bit of dressing and just spoon the good bits on top of the leaves. Whatever way you prefer.

To make the dressing, simply mix together all the ingredients except the olive oil. Gradually whisk in the olive oil and it will emulsify. Season to taste.

Chocolate cake with lime

This is a Sarah Raven recipe. We found it hard to get lime marmalade, so used orange instead.  It worked fine, especially if there’s little to no peel in it.

Serves 8

25 cm spring form tin lined with parchment paper.

180 g dark chocolate

175g soft butter

125 g caster sugar

Zest of 6 limes

200 g ground almonds

4 eggs, separated

Icing

100 g dark chocolate

30 g butter

2 tbsp Rose’s lime marmalade

Preheat oven to 150 C. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over simmering water.  Beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Then add in the egg yolks and melted chocolate and gently whisk and fold.  Beat the egg whites until stiff. Stir in the lime zest and ground almonds and then fold in the egg whites. Pour into the lined tin and bake for about 30 minutes. Allow to cool. Make the icing by melting the dark chocolate and stirring in the butter and marmalade.  As it starts to cool, then pour it over the cake. As it cools it will form up.  Serve with sweetened cream to which you’ve added some lime juice and icing sugar.

Domini recommends:

St Tola Goat’s curd starter in The Pig’s Ear restaurant on Nassau Street, Dublin 2, as well as their pea, mint and bacon salad. One of the most consistent and lovely restaurants that celebrates all things Irish. A real favourite.