Sometimes, you just know how a dish is supposed to be put together and you nail it the first time.  That might have happened this evening – though I can’t rule out the possibility that smoked chicken would make day-old porridge into a culinary delight as well.

Either way, this is a pleasing, colourful dish wish lots of texture and a nice balance of flavours.  I’ll definitely be making it again.

Ingredients

1 breast smoked chicken, cut into cubes

180g wild rice

2 small onions/1 large onion, sliced

2 sprigs rosemary

100g walnuts, broken into pieces

80g pomegranate seeds

50g pecorino romano, grated

olive oil

Serves 3

Method

Step 1: rinse rice and cook with about 350ml on a medium to low heat.  Bring through the boil, allow it to simmer for 3-5 minutes and turn off.  Set aside to let it steam through to completion.

Step 2: in a large frying pan or wok, over a low to medium heat, fry onion, walnuts and rosemary leaves, stripped from their stalks.

Step 3: once the onion is starting to soften, add the chicken and stir for another 3-4 minutes until the chicken is warmed through.  Turn off the heat, add the pecorino and pomegranate seeds and stir through.  Set aside until the rice is done.

Step 4: Once the rice is done, add it to the rest of the ingredients and stir gently, but thoroughly.  You don’t want to break the structure of any of your ingredients.

And there it is: a relatively quick and extremely more-ish dinner.