CHICKEN SALAD WITH SPINACH AND LARDONS

When I was a wee young thing, the spinach and lardons salad in Joe Allen’s was considered quite the coolest thing – and I still love it, indeed love all those outdated, unfairly derided salades tièdes of yesteryear. These days I tend to use pancetta, which I cut myself into rugged little cubes, but can’t quite help still calling these lardons here, out of deference to the whole ethos of this dish. Feel free, however to buy those ready-cubed, skinny pink lardons which come in cellophane packages at the supermarket – or indeed just snip up some streaky bacon and fry up these instead. I have no compunction whatsoever about using shop-bought packages of those tender bubby spinach leaves; for me, this would be a non-starter if I had to get the grit off real spinach myself.

1 teaspoon olive oil (not extra virgin)

200g lardons

1 x 200g packet young spinach leaves

1 cold, cooked chicken breast, sliced or shredded

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

Put the teaspoon of oil in a heavy-bottomed frying pan over a medium to high heat and when it’s warm add the lardons and fry till crispy, letting them ooze their salty juices into the pan; this will be the gloriously oily basis for the dressing later.

Toss the spinach leaves and chicken together in a bowl and when the lardons are cooked, take the pan off the heat and add them, too, transferring them with a slotted spatula, leaving the fat in the pan. Now stir the red wine vinegar into the pan, letting it hiss, bubble up and mix, and pour this on top of your salad. Quickly toss to mix: c’est ça.

Serves 1–2.