Chicken Strips with Pomegranate

Preparation:


Take the chicken breast and remove any bones and pieces of fat or tendons.


Then flatten the breast with a meat mallet or flatten very carefully with a pestle. Cut the meat into strip the width of half an inch. Prepare to squeeze the juice out of one lemon.


Squeeze the lemon and strain the juice to get all the seeds out. Place the strips of chicken in a larger bowl for the marinade.


Pour the lemon juice in the bowl with the chicken strips and cover them completely with the juice. Let them marinate for at least three hours while covered with plastic wrap. Keep the chicken and lemon juice marinade in a cool spot but outside the refrigerator. It is important to turn the strips every now and then so the lemon juice wets all the sides of the chicken as the raw meat cooks when it gets in touch with the sour juice of the lemon. The original Chicken Strips with Pomegranate recipe prescribes this marinating proces as the only cooking time so the strips are eating like a kind of chicken carpaccio. For those who prefer their chicken cooked on the heat I have added an option to grill the chicken strips after the time needed for it to marinare.


In the meanwhile start retrieving the arils from the pomegranate and cut it in half. The important thing when retrieving the arils from the pomegranate is to be patient and to not damage the seeds. Hold one half of the pomegranate in your hands and slowly press the outer edges further outwards with your thumbs.


This way the arils that are inside the pomegranate pop upwards making it easy to retrieve them one by one. Put the arils of the first half in a bowl and repeat the same thing to retrieve the pomegranate arils of the second half.


Put one bowl of pomegranate arils to the side for the garnishing of the dish while the other one goes in a blender. Mix the arils and pour the pomegranate juice in a glass while straining it to get out the hard seeds.


Pour the strained pomegranate juice in a bowl and add the 4 tablespoons of olive oil and a few drops of Worcestershire sauce.


Season the dressing with ground pepper and some salt and stir with a spoon to blend all the ingredients. Drain the chicked strips after three hours have passed.


Dry the strip very carefully with some paper tissues or a clean kitchen cloth after draining and put a grill pan on the heat. Add some olive oil to fry the strips in.


When sufficiently dry, place the chicken strips in the pan and let them golden and brown in the hot oil. When cooked take the grill pan off the heat and put the strips of meat into a salad bowl. Pour the previously prepared pomegranate dressing over the chicken to dress the stripes.


Add the remaining bowl of pomegranate arils to the dressed chicken strips and toss them around in the salad bowl before plating up.


Garnish two plates of pomegranate dressed chicken with some chopped parsley.


Grate the 25 gr of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese and sprinkle on top of the Chicken Strips with Pomegranate ready to be served garnished with bright red pomegranate arils on the side!