Freshest Chicken Salad with Chile Peppers and Wheat Berries

Ingredients

1 cup (200 g) uncooked wheat berries

1 quart (1 liter) water

Kosher salt

2 limes (maybe 3, if they're not very juicy)

2 tablespoons rice vinegar or white wine vinegar

A few fresh hot chiles, such as jalapeños (or Anaheims if you want milder), deribbed, seeded, and thinly sliced

½ cup (15 g) torn or roughly chopped fresh cilantro leaves and tender stems, plus a handful of4-inch (10 cm) stems (8 to 10) for poaching the chicken

6 black peppercorns

1 bay leaf

About 1½ pounds (675 g) chicken pieces: 4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs or

2 bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts

½/ cup (75 g) chopped red onion

1 teaspoon sugar

1 pint (360 g) cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered if large

1red, orange, or yellow bell pepper, cut into small dice or strips

Freshly ground black pepper

Extra-virgin olive oil

2 cups lightly packed (200 g) shredded crisp lettuce, such as romaine or iceberg

Directions

Put the wheat berries in a medium saucepan with the water and 1 teaspoon salt. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to a lively simmer, cover, and cook until the wheat berries are fully tender and most of the grains have opened up, about 45 minutes. All the water won't be absorbed, so drain thoroughly. Cool completely.

Cut 2 or 3 thin slices off one of the limes and place in a medium pot (reserve the other half of the lime for later). Add 3 cups (720 ml) water, the vinegar, 3 or 4 slices of one of the hot chiles, the cilantro stems, peppercorns, bay leaf, and 2 teaspoons salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and simmer for about 10 minutes so the flavors develop

Slide the chicken into the simmering liquid and adjust the heat to a gentle simmer. If the chicken is not covered by the liquid, add some hot water. Poach until just cooked -no longer pink in the center but not cooked much past that; the internal temperature should be 170°F (77°C) for thighs or 160°F (71°C) for breasts; the temperature will rise several degrees after cooking. Do NOT let the liquid actually boil, which can dry out the chicken. The actual time needed will vary according to your chicken's thickness, but count on 12 to 30 minutes.

When the chicken is cooked, take it from the liquid and set aside to cool, then shred, discarding any skin or bones (or pop them back into the poaching liquid, simmer another 45 minutes or so, and use it as a tasty broth). Chill the meat, covered, in the fridge.

Meanwhile, grate the zest from a whole lime into a small bowl. Add the onion, then squeeze the juice from one lime over the onion. Add the sugar and a big pinch of salt. Toss and leave to "pickle" while you make the rest of the dish.

Put the chicken in a big serving bowl, add the wheat berries, tomatoes, bell pepper, hot chiles, onion-lime juice mixture, and cilantro and toss. Season with salt and pepper, squeeze on the juice from the reserved lime half, and drizzle with about ¼ cup (60 ml) olive oil. Toss again, taste, and adjust with more salt, pepper, lime juice, ano olive oil until really zingy. Fold in the shredded lettuce and serve right away.

Notes

This dish is perfect for summer entertaining, because you can cook the chicken and wheat berries in the cool of the morning or the night before, and everything else in the dish is raw. A dollop of Spicy Creamy Green Sauce (page 314) on this salad would be

delish. —Serves 4 to 6