Grilled Harissa Chicken Avocado Toast

Have this for lunch or brunch at the weekend for the ultimate cute cafe at home experience. I’ve been known to have this for dinner too.

I love this healthy lunch/brunch dish. Harissa is one of my favourite flavours, so teamed up on avocado sourdough toast with feta and quick pickled onions, it’a a real delight.

Cooking chicken on a grill pan

Chicken is notorious for getting stuck to grill pans, so you need to be a bit mindful. I always keep my grill pan oiled after use. This means when it’s cooled after cooking, I’ll rub it with an oiled kitchen paper towel.

But when I’m cooking chicken on the grill pan, I brush the pan with some light olive oil or avocado oil. The harissa paste has oil in too, so that covers needing the chicken to be oiled as well as the pan.

The other consideration is the temperature of the pan. It needs to be hot enough to get those beautiful grill marks, but not so hot it causes the chicken to stick – which can happen even if you oiled the pan enough.

If this is your first time cooking chicken on a grill pan, it’s a great idea to get a simple thermometer to make sure the internal temperature is 74C (165F).

Grilled Harissa Chicken Avocado Toast

Print Recipe

Invite some friends over at the weekend, serve this for brunch and they’ll love you!  Looks very impressive, but actually is very easy.

• Total Time: 2 hours 30 minutes
• Yield: 2 people 1x

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

For the chicken

• 2 chicken breasts
• 50g harissa paste

For the avocado toast

• 2 slices sourdough
• 2 avocados
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp white wine vinegar
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 75g feta cheese

Optional

• 1/2 a lemon
• Chilli oil
• Chilli flakes
• Rocket leaves or sunflower greens
• Pickled red onions

Instructions

1. Lay the chicken breasts flat on your chopping board and carefully cut in half lengthways.
2. In a container, thoroughly rub the chicken with the harissa paste.  Cover and leave in the fridge for 2 hours, or preferably overnight.
3. Fire up the grill pan and when it’s medium high, get the chicken breast in.
4. If you’re using a lemon, cut into quarters and place in the pan to grill and caramelise.
5. When you have enough colour on one side of the chicken, turn them over.  Do the same with the lemon.
6. Whilst the chicken is cooking, get your bread on to toast.  Then get your avocado mashed in a bowl with the lemon juice, olive oil and salt.
7. Remove your chicken and lemon from the pan.
8. To plate up, sourdough on the plate, butter it if you’d like, followed by the smashed avocado, then chicken.  If using, top with crumbled feta, chilli oil/flakes, pickled onions and black pepper.  Sunflower greens or arugula look great on the side with the grilled lemon.

Notes

• Make sure your pan is well oiled and the chicken has oil all over from the harissa paste, so it doesn’t stick in the grill pan.
• You want the grill pan hot enough to leave those grill marks, but not so hot it causes the chicken to stick.
• I recommend getting a simple probe thermometer to check the internal temperature of the chicken is 74C (165F).

• Author: Russell James
• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Marinating Time: 2 hours
• Cook Time: 15 minutes
• Method: Grill
• Cuisine: Mediterranean

Keywords: harissa chicken breast