Chicken Fattoush with Crisped Chickpeas
One basket does the chicken, the chickpeas and the bread while the salad is built on the board beside it.
Why it works
Fattoush is a salad that hangs on contrast, so the basket is doing three jobs at once: sumac-rubbed thigh strips crisping at the edges, chickpeas drying out into something nubbly, and torn pitta going brittle. Chickpea skins trap water and turn slippery in dressing, so rubbing them off in a tea towel first is what lets them harden rather than steam. The bread goes in only for the last four minutes, long enough to snap and not long enough to burn. Salting the tomatoes meanwhile does the opposite job on purpose — the juice they give up becomes half the dressing.
Method
- Heat the air fryer to 200°C (400°F). Tip the chickpeas onto a clean tea towel, fold it over and rub firmly for 20 seconds, then open it out and pick away the loose skins — that is where the sogginess lives.
- Toss the chicken and the bare chickpeas with 2 tbsp of the oil, the sumac, dried mint, grated garlic and salt. Tip into the basket in as flat a layer as it will take and air fry 8 minutes, shaking hard at 4 minutes.
- Meanwhile, put the tomatoes in a serving bowl with a good pinch of salt; within two minutes they weep. Whisk the lemon juice, garlic, pomegranate molasses, sumac and salt straight into the tomatoes and their juice.
- Toss the torn pitta with the last tablespoon of oil, scatter it over the basket and air fry 4 minutes more, until the bread is brittle at the edges and the chicken reads 74°C (165°F) at the thickest strip.
- Add the cucumber, radishes, spring onions, lettuce and herbs to the tomatoes and turn it by hand twice, no more — fattoush bruises if you work it.
- Spread the yoghurt across four wide plates and pile the salad on. Fold the hot chicken, chickpeas and pitta through it just before it goes to the table, so the bread is still crisp, and finish with a pinch more sumac.
For the toddler
Take a few chicken strips and a spoonful of chickpeas out at step 2, before the salt, sumac and garlic go on, and cook theirs in a little plain oil. Dress their salad with a squeeze of lemon alone and keep the olives off. Crisped pitta is hard going, so soften a piece in the yoghurt. Crush the chickpeas, chop the chicken small, and cut the cucumber and radish into soft strips rather than rounds.
How the toddler notes workChef’s notes
Chicken breast cut the same size needs 9 minutes rather than 12. Butter beans instead of chickpeas — no skinning, just thorough drying.
Skip the skinning and pat the chickpeas bone dry. Less crunch, four minutes saved.
Olives, and a dish of pickled turnips for their colour and their sharpness.
Best within the hour. To keep it, hold back the lettuce, herbs and pitta and add them fresh.