Chinese Chicken Salad

Who doesn't enjoy a delicious Chinese Chicken Salad as an alternative to a heavy meal now and then?

Most people happily pay $12 or more to enjoy this delicious dish at a business lunch in a nice restaurant instead of a hamburger or sandwich that would be a more messy option.  It's much easier to maintain that refined power look in a business suit when plunging a fork into a salad than leaning over a plate to allow the barbecue sauce to drip between your fingers. It also makes that farewell handshake a bit less awkward.

Preparing a home version fits nicely into Quick-Clean Cuisine.

Because it is a salad, you understand that the primary ingredient is lettuce.  Romaine, green leaf or iceberg will all work.  We tend to keep Romaine in our refrigerator, because that is my wife's favorite, but if you have leftover Shreds from tacos or some fancy organic spring mix you bought to impress your boyfriend's mother, that will work too. 

Wash as much lettuce as you need for either an individual serving or a family style bowl.  Making extra to store in Tupperware will make it easy to repeat this dish or make a side salad for a few days.  Add some shredded cabbage if you like, but basically you just need a bunch of green roughage.  If you have some carrots, broccoli, mushrooms or other favorite veggies in the fridge, feel free to chop some of those into small pieces and add them.  Cubed tomatoes add some nice color and flavor.  Toss it all together, and then add the secret ingredient.

I first noticed the flavor similarity of Lawry's Sesame Ginger Marinade to restaurant Chinese Chicken Salad dressing when substituting for Teriyaki Marinade in making stir fry.  I thought to myself, why not use it as a salad dressing?

It turns out that Smart & Final carries First Street Chinese Chicken Salad Dressing and Marinade, but trust me when I say that marinade works fine as salad dressing.  Just don't drench the salad.  A little goes a long way.

At this point, you really have most of the flavor and texture of the salad.  If you want to be thorough, chop up some boneless, skinless chicken breast and stir fry it in the marinade, but that really isn't necessary, as the marinade/dressing adds plenty of flavor to the chicken when you put the chicken on top of the salad.  By the way, I recommend adding the chicken to the top of each individual bowl rather than stirring it in, as it works easier for portion control, and you can add more chicken as desired as you eat to keep the flavors balanced.

If you happen to have some leftover El Pollo Loco or baked chicken, you can chop that into chunks as your chicken, to save cooking any chicken at all. You can also boil chicken breast and chop it into small pieces. 

My lovely wife and I have found we prefer Tyson's Crispy Chicken, baked to crunchy deliciousness and chopped into bite-sized chunks.  That extra crunch and pseudo-KFC flavor works perfectly in a salad, whether Chinese or occidental. Needless to say, lining a baking dish with parchment paper will make chicken preparation Q-CC compliant.

So, there you have it.  You don't have to spend a lot of time and money to enjoy a delicious, healthy salad, and unless you throw salad ingredients around the kitchen needlessly, wadding up the parchment paper used to line your baking dish and rinsing off the cutting board makes for quick cleanup.