Orange and Green Tea Poached Chicken Salad

I love salads.  There's so much more to salads than just some tossed lettuce with oil and vinegar.  It's a wide variety of dishes -- you can have your leafy greens and vinaigrette, or you can have legumes, grains, seafood, meat, roasted veg, fruits with an endless possibility of dressings and sauces from creamy blue cheese to zingy Thai dressings.   

It's springtime, salads are a must to accompany the great weather.  The chicken has delicate flavors with hints of smokiness coming from the tea leaves, accompanied by sweet and tangy notes from the orange juice, and then you get the contrast of zingy sharpness from the zest and ginger. Please do toss it with some julienned vegetables/serve on top of a cold noodle salad/with some legumes.  I had nothing else in the kitchen so it was just pure protein for me.

Ingredients
1 large chicken breast, roughly chopped into chunks
4 tbsp green tea leaves
1 orange
1cm piece ginger, sliced
3 cups water
zest and juice from 1 orange
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp olive oil
1cm piece ginger, minced
1 large garlic clove, minced

Method
Bring water to boil and add the green tea leaves, the peel from the orange and ginger. Turn heat down and let it infuse for 10 minutes.  Add the chicken and let it simmer for 10-15 minutes until cooked.  Make the dressing by whisking together the juice from the whole orange, the soy sauce, ginger and garlic.  Shred the chicken with your hands and toss in the dressing and the zest of the other half of the orange.