A few years ago I was watching Guy Fieri on the Food Network and he went to a food truck specialising in Guam cuisine. I had to look Guam up on the map and I apologise for my ignorance: it’s a US territory in Oceania. Anyhow, the food truck’s special was a Guam chopped chicken salad and it looked sensational.

I then proceeded to make that recipe at home, substituting a few ingredients because I didn’t have them – I literally felt the urge to try that amazing-looking food straight away!

So, a few years down the line, I live in a different house and a different country and I recently got an air fryer. I decided to cook the chicken in the air fryer and assemble the Guam salad. This time I made sure I had all the right ingredients in advance.

This recipe can either serve one person as a main or two people as a starter or side dish.

Serves 1-2 people

Chopped Chicken and Coconut Salad Ingredients

2 chicken legs, bone and skin on

½ fresh coconut, grated or chopped into small pieces

1 green onion (scallion), chopped

½ red or white onion, chopped

1 tablespoon olive oil

juice of 1 lemon

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

2 teaspoons ground black pepper

2 tablespoons soy sauce

mixed herbs (parsley etc)

2 green chillies

1 or 2 bread wraps

Chopped Chicken and Coconut Salad Cooking and Assembly

The original recipe called for boneless chicken, however it is much easier to remove bones after the chicken is cooked (it’s also far less messy).

Start by marinading the chicken. In a sealable bag place the chicken, vinegar, soy sauce, black pepper, chopped onion and leave in the fridge for 8 hours or overnight. When you are ready to cook the chicken make sure you drain it from the marinade and remove any small bits of seasoning from its surfaces as they may burn.

I used a manual air fryer, so you choose the temperature and cooking times, there are no presets.

I cooked the chicken legs at 180 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes on each side (30 minutes total). Check that the meat is cooked through: if you poke it the juices must run clear.

Remove the bones from the chicken legs and chop into pieces.

Add the chicken to a bowl, add the lemon juice, chopped spring onion, herbs, chopped/grated coconut and fresh chopped chillies. Serve as is or in a bread wrap.

The salad is delicious either straight away or after keeping it in the fridge for a few hours as the flavours get a chance to infuse.

It tastes bright and invigorating thanks to the kick from the chillies and the sharpness from the lemon juice. Highly recommended!

Get the Tower 3 Litre Manual Air Fryer (affiliate).

What would you like to cook next? How about homemade KFC? Go on, you know you want to! Air fryer fried chicken recipe.