Chinese Chicken Salad With Mandarin Oranges
Chinese chicken salad made its debut in the 1950’s in Sunset Magazine.
“Sunset’s recipe for Chinese Chicken appeared similarly as to what it’s known as today, including: soy sauce; salad oil; garlic and ginger; (relatively exotic) Chinese five-spice or (more common substitute, ground cinnamon); broiler fryer chicken (marinated in sherry wine); sesame seed; shredded iceberg lettuce; green onions; coriander (cilantro); cashews or peanuts; and lemon dressing.”
Wikipedia
Now there are many variations of Chinese chicken salad. The biggest difference is most recipes have thinly sliced cabbage. You can use shredded iceberg or romaine lettuce in addition to the cabbage. Some other vegetable options include sliced sugar snap peas or snow peas, diced bell peppers, cucumbers or pickled cucumbers and water chestnuts. Fruit, either mandarin oranges or mango, is another more recent addition. And you can use canned mandarin oranges instead of fresh.
If you’re not avoiding wheat, crunchy chow mein noodles or deep fried wonton skins are now a classic part of this salad.
For an Asian dressing you need to use a neutral flavored oil. The light olive oils without the strong olive taste work. Grapeseed oil also works well. Asian dressings are usually flavored with toasted sesame, ginger and soy sauce (coconut aminos are a soy-less substitute for this). These are the basics. You can add ingredients to make a dressing that is more complex. Decide which flavors you want to stand out and tweak the amounts as needed. The internet is full of ideas. Many recipes call for garlic. Some add orange marmalade, hoisin sauce and black pepper.
Whether you keep it simple or embellish it with more, Chinese chicken salads are delicious!
Chinese Chicken Salad With Mandarin Oranges
The measurements of the salad ingredients do not need to be exact. Adjust the amounts to your liking.
Ingredients
- 2 cups thinly sliced green, savoy or napa cabbage
- 2 cups thinly sliced red cabbage
- 1 cup julienned carrot
- mandarin orange segments or sliced mango
- 1/4 cup green onion tops, sliced thinly diagonally
- 1/2 cup torn cilantro leaves
- 2 tablespoons toasted sliced almonds
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
- deep fried rice sticks
- Cooked Chicken, torn into small pieces (recipe below)
- Sesame and Ginger Dressing (recipe below)
Instructions
Arrange the salad ingredients on a plate, along with the chicken and rice sticks, sprinkling everything with the almonds and sesame seeds. Drizzle with desired amount of dressing.
Cooked Chicken
Ingredients
- 2 6 ounce chicken breasts
- salt
- pepper
- avocado oil
Instructions
Pound the chicken breasts until they are an even 1/2″ thick. You can bake them in the oven or cook them on the stove. To bake them, lay them in a baking dish, rub all over with avocado oil and sprinkle them with a little salt and pepper. Bake then in a 400° oven for 20 minutes. To cook them on the stove, sprinkle both sides of the chicken with salt and pepper. Heat a skillet over medium high. Drizzle the pan with avocado oil and swirl the pan. Add the chicken to the pan. Let sear for 4 minutes without moving the chicken. Flip over and sear the other side for 4 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Cool, chill and tear into small pieces.
Sesame and Ginger Dressing
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup light flavored olive oil
- 1/4 cup toasted sesame oil
- 1/4 cup rice vinegar
- 1/4 cup coconut aminos
- 2 teaspoons fresh ginger
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup or honey
Instructions
Measure all ingredients into a container with a lid. Shake until well blended.
Photo of mandarin oranges by Juliana Phang at Flickr.com