Chinese Chicken Salad it is!
OK, first, I have to admit that the only ingredients that are "Chinese" is really the dressing, but hey, we're in North America now, so let's press on.
Ingredients:
1 Chicken, already roasted, from any grocery store
1 Cucumber, preferably the long English type, the ones with the nice plastic wrapping
*Optional 1/4 package dried rice noodles, the super thin kind. Scald with hot water and soak for 10 minutes. You can always substitute some plain rotini pasta. I don't use any at all, since I add extra cucumbers.
2 tbsp. soy sauce, the "light" type. Kikkoman light with the green label is cool.
2 tbsp. black Chinese vinegar (Chinkiang Vinegar, from Mainland China, made with water, glutinous rice, and salt) Substitute with balsamic vinegar, if you don't have it. Makes no difference. Do not use the black Taiwanese sweet vinegar. It should be tart.
2 tbsp. sesame oil (if you like it spicy, use 2 tbsp. of the flaming hot stuff. I use 1 tbsp. plain Japanese top quality sesame oil, and 1 tbsp. Chinese hot sesame oil.)
The basic idea is to take all the meat off the chicken, toss with the cucumbers and rice noodles. I cut the meat to matchstick size, along with the cucumbers, since I like the presentation. Also, the sauce coats the pieces well. It's really up to you. If you add rice noodles or pasta, I think the best portion should be 1 of chicken, 1 of cucumber and 1 of noodle. If you don't plan to add noodles, try a one to one ratio of chicken and cucumber. Toss with sauce. Put in the fridge for about an hour if you like it cool. Toss a few times while it is cooling. Tastes much better the next day.
Enjoy!
Teresa |
