Bang Bang Chicken With Crunchy Rice Salad

Before you start cooking, take your chicken out of the fridge, open the packet and let it air, then boil half a kettle

Add your white long grain rice to a pot with a lid with 175ml [230ml] [350ml] cold water and bring to the boil over a high heat

Once boiling, reduce the heat to very low and cook, covered, for 12-15 min or until all the water has absorbed and the rice is cooked

Once cooked, remove from the heat and set aside (lid on) to steam until serving

Meanwhile, heat a large, wide-based pan (preferably non-stick with a matching lid), with a drizzle of vegetable oil over a high heat

Once hot, add your chicken breast strips with a pinch of both salt and pepper and cook for 3 min on each side or until golden

Wash your lettuce, then pat it dry with kitchen paper and roughly shred

Top, tail, peel, then grate your carrot[s]

Trim, then slice your spring onion[s] finely

Add your shredded lettuce, grated carrot and sliced spring onion to a large mixing bowl

Once golden, reduce the heat to medium-low and sprinkle your five-spice mix over the chicken

Turn the chicken several times until evenly coated in the spice

Cook for 1 min further, then add a splash of water and increase the heat to medium, and then cook, covered, for 10-12 min or until the chicken is cooked through (no pink meat!)

While the chicken is cooking, cut your cucumber into discs

Stack a few cucumber discs at a time and cut each stack into matchsticks

Cut half your red chilli[es] into rounds (save the rest for later!)

Add the cucumber matchsticks and chilli rounds (can't handle the heat? Go easy!) to the bowl with the lettuce, carrot and spring onion – this is your crunchy salad

Cut the remaining chilli in half lengthways, deseed (scrape the seeds out with a teaspoon) and chop finely

Combine your peanut butter and 1 tbsp [1 1/2 tbsp] [2 tbsp] boiled water in a small bowl and mix well until you have a smooth paste

Add your soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, rice vinegar, chopped chilli (not a fan of spice? Just add a little!) and 1 tsp [1 1/2 tsp] [2 tsp] sugar and mix well to combine – this is your peanut dressing

Transfer the cooked chicken to a clean board and shred it apart using two forks – this technique is known as 'pulling'

Once done, season the pulled chicken with a pinch of salt – this is your bang bang chicken

Fluff the cooked rice with a fork and add it to the crunchy salad – this is your crunchy rice salad

Toss the crunchy rice salad in a drizzle of olive oil and season with a pinch of salt