Serves 4
One of the best traditional main course summer salads. The sweetness that develops in the sweet potato when roasted, compliments the chicken perfectly. The warm dressing made with the pan drippings is delicious.

You will need

6 chicken thighs, bone in, skin on
Ina Paarman’s Chicken Spice
2-3 (± 500 g) sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced into 1½ cm thick half slices
Ina Paarman’s Vegetable Spice
olive oil
4 thick slices of ciabatta, broken into chunks
200-250 g (± 2 cups) whole cherry tomatoes, pricked with a toothpick
½ cup (125 ml) raw almonds, roughly chopped
1 punnet baby spinach, watercress and rocket mixture
¾ cup (180 ml) Ina Paarman’s Classic Balsamic Vinaigrette

Method

Adjust the oven shelf to middle position and pre-heat oven to 200°C.
Season the chicken on both sides with Chicken Spice and space out on a large baking sheet, skin side up. Place in oven while you are preparing the potatoes.
Toss the sweet potato slices with Vegetable Spice and 2T (30 ml) of olive oil and arrange between the chicken pieces.
Roast for 35 minutes until both the chicken and sweet potatoes are beginning to brown nicely.
Toss the bread chunks, cherry tomatoes and almonds with ¼ cup (60 ml) of olive oil and 1t (5 ml) of Vegetable Spice.
Sprinkle over the chicken mixture in the pan and roast everything together for another 10 minutes until the bread is lightly toasted.
Remove the chicken and cut into strips, discard bones and excess skin that has not crisped.
Line a large flat platter with the salad leaves and arrange the chicken etc. on the leaves.
Blot off some of the excess fat in the pan with absorbent kitchen paper. Add the Balsamic Vinaigrette to the pan – warm through while stirring to scrape up all the nice brown bits.
Dress the salad at the last minute with the hot dressing.