Asian Chicken Salad

I really enjoy the food blog, Simply Recipes. The other day I had an email alerting me to a new post from Elise, so I headed over to see what was up. Seems that Elise and the girls had a night away and one of the friends made Chinese Chicken Salad. This is my take on her salad she presents. I've changed just a few little things....and the name of the dish, because of a funny Margaret Chow story. Perhaps J-lo will pipe in to tell it! Made me giggle the whole time I was making this dinner.

Asian Chicken Salad
Serves 2 as large entree salads, or 4 small side salads

1/2 lb. white chicken meat, cooked and shredded
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tsp sherry
1 TB sugar

Vegetable oil
2 oz. bean threads (a small handful) (You could very easily substitute Chow Mein noodles)

The Bean Threads after they were fried in the vegetable oil, keep reading for more!

1 head of romaine, shredded/chopped
2 carrots, shredded
2 TB chopped toasted almonds
1 TB toasted sesame seeds

Sauce:

1 TB sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground pepper
2 TB vegetable oil
1 TB dark sesame oil
3 TB rice wine vinegar

1. Using two forks, shred the cooked chicken (if you don't have any already cooked, poach chicken pieces in simmering water until no longer pink inside). Mix soy sauce, sherry and sugar in a bowl and add the chicken. Let soak for 10 minutes. Remove chicken and pat dry with paper towels. Fry the shredded chicken in a little cooking oil on medium high heat to make it a little crispy and to bake in the seasoning. Set aside.

2. Put 3/4 inch of vegetable oil into a small saucepan. Heat on high heat until when you flick a drop or two of water into the oil it sizzles. Take one bunch of the dried bean threads and gently break them up a bit. Test the oil by putting one bean thread into the oil. If the oil is hot enough, the bean thread will almost immediately sizzle and puff up. That's when you know the oil is hot enough. Working with a few bean threads at a time, put them in the hot oil. As soon as they puff up, remove them carefully with tongs and place them on a paper towel to cool. The paper towel removes excess oil. Set aside.

3. Toast your chopped almonds, or chop your toasted almonds; toast your sesame seeds. (Heat a thin skillet to medium high heat, add the seeds - or nuts, don't do them both together - stir frequently until they begin to brown, remove from heat, they will continue to cook. Let cool to room temp.)

4. Mix all of the sauce ingredients together, in the order listed. Just before serving the salad, mix all of the salad ingredients together - lettuce, chicken, bean threads, carrots, almonds, sesame seeds, and sauce.

NOTES:
The original recipe called for shredded green onions. I'm not really fond of raw green onions, so I skipped them. I did add shredded carrot, I liked having the carrot in there. And it added just a touch more veg. The sauce/dressing; I only used 2 TB of oil, the recipe called for 3. The recipe called for just 'vinegar' for the sauce. I thought it would be good to do rice wine vinegar, I'm sure other vinegar would be good as well. One final note, I think I would use low sodium soy sauce to soak the chicken in. I loved the chicken as it was, but maybe a touch less salt would make it superb!

I loved this salad...my head looked like a hoover vaccum, I just sucked this salad up! Make it!!!

Close up of the yummy Asian Chicken Salad

Another photo for prosperity