Asian Chicken Salad

I have a new recipe to share!  But first .. some dog park photos.

Chibana Dog Park

Levitating dog!

The little guy's legs just aren't long enough to keep up with the big dog

Chomp

Okay, on to the recipe!

The summer heat has been making me crave salads.  The only issue, of course, is that produce at the commissary is insanely expensive. ($4 for a pound of apples?  You've got to be kidding me!)  It's also usually less-than-fresh.  (Buy 6 oranges, and about 2 of them are guaranteed to be inedible.)

Luckily, Napa cabbage is abundant here and relatively inexpensive.  Which leads us to today's recipe: Asian Chicken Salad.

Asian Chicken Salad -Serves 4 - Adapted from Natural Health Magazine


-2 chicken breasts (or the equivalent amount of meat in thighs, tenderloins, etc.)
-1 tsp olive oil
-6 cups of Napa cabbage, shredded
-1 carrot, julienned
-1 red bell pepper, julienned
-1 bunch cilantro, chopped
-1/4 cup cashews, chopped

-1/2 cup seasoned rice wine vinegar
-1/3 cup orange juice
-1/4 cup tamari or low-sodium soy sauce
-2 T honey
-1/8 cup sesame oil
1/2 T freshly grated ginger
-1/2 t red pepper flakes

Cook your chicken.  I brushed my chicken tenderloins with olive oil, tossed some salt and pepper on them and roasted them in the oven at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes.  You could also saute the chicken or poach it.  (Or heck, buy a rotisserie chicken if you want to go the REALLY lazy route.  I won't judge.)

Yes, it does make me feel better eating chicken that was "raised in a wonderful environment."

Make the dressing.  Whisk together the rice wine vinegar, orange juice, tamari and honey.  Once it's combined, add the sesame oil in a thin stream.  Mix in the grated ginger and red pepper flakes.

Salad dressing ingredients

After the chicken has cooked, allow it to cool for about 15 minutes.  Shred the chicken.

Yep, definitely using the lid to my tupperware cake container as a salad bowl. 

Place the chicken, cabbage, green onions, carrot, bell pepper, cilantro and cashews in a large bowl.  Add the dressing and mix until everything is evenly coated.

I served the salad with pot-stickers to round out the meal.  It was delicious!

I also discovered why they're called "pot-stickers."  I'm still scrubbing the noodley bits off my skillet  

*A word of warning: the dressing is pretty spicy.  A little bit of it goes a long way, so don't just dump the whole bowl of dressing onto your salad.  If you'd like to tone down the heat a bit, add fewer red pepper flakes.

Enjoy!