Jamaican Jerked Chicken Salad

I have gotten into the habit of asking people what they would call their signature dish and of course 'why?'. It is a great way of seeing another dimension to a person's personality in terms of what they value. I had decided to make Mark's signature dish. He was our guide when we hiked the Blue Mountains south of Sydney for a day in April, 2010. So I emailed my friends whom I was having over for an Iona reunion dinner and asked them if they would like to have curried fish which was Mark's dish. All of them thought this was fine. The day before the dinner, some one stuffed a metro news paper into my bicycle carrier. I quickly had to read it and there was a recipe with a fantastic picture of Jamaican Jerked Chicken Salad. Right there the menu changed. It is all in the power of a picture. The one thing I really liked about this salad is that I could eat it the next day. I really dislike day old dressed salad - wimpy, soggy and messy but this salad was about a 7 out of 10. Only the kiwi went a bit mushy. Had I sliced it into wedges like the authour of the recipe stated, it might have kept its shape.

Ingredients:

4 green onions

3 cloves minced garlic

1/4 tsp thyme

1 tsp allspice

1 tsp salt

4 tbsp red wine vinegar

2 tbsp Dijon mustard

2 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp olive oil

1 pound grilled chicken breasts

1 small pineapple, ringed and then cubed

4 kiwis, peeled and chopped into wedges

1 large red pepper

1 cup jicama cut into match sticks

2 cups of spinach leaves

small bunch of cilantro

In a large non metal bowl stir together garlic, thyme, black pepper, allspice and 1/2 tsp salt. Stir in 2 tbsp vinegar, 1 tbsp mustard and 1 tbsp brown sugar. When mixed, add chicken and ensure all surfaces are covered. Marinate at least 2 hours. As always, I plumped the chicken up by marinating the breasts in milk and lemon for eight hours, draining and then adding the breasts to the jerk marinade. Grill the chicken breasts for 4 minutes per side on the barbecue or about 15 cm from the oven grill. Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, whisk together remaining spices, oil, mustard and sugar. Add cut fruit, red pepper, jicama and chopped green onions. Toss. Lay the spinach leaves on a interesting serving plate. Pile the salad on top. Remove the chicken and slice in vertical thin strips. Arrange on top of the salad. Sprinkle with cilantro. Present. We did talk about Iona and the guest who was from Jamaica. He would keep his children home to harvest allspice berries but he called them Jamaican peppers. They would put blankets underneath the trees and shake them. The berries would fall onto the blankets. So aside from that aside, this recipe has little to do with Iona and a great deal to do with friends eating a meal together expecting to be eating fish curry but adapting well to the hostess's impulsive recipe whims.