Coaching Cooking

Using the leftover chicken from the white chop chicken recipe, you can make a refreshing Chinese chicken salad. This is my favorite way to use leftover roasted or steamed chicken. It makes a great weekend lunch or light dinner. Mandarin oranges aren’t authentic, but then again the salad itself is more American than Chinese. So, I present my Chinese-American chicken salad.

Jenny’s Chinese Chicken Salad

Ingredients:

1 cup of shredded chicken
3 cups of washed salad greens (use romaine or butter lettuce for best results)
2 green onions (the white part and some of the green tops), thinly sliced
1 small can of mandarin oranges, drained
1/3 cup of toasted almond slivers
optional: 2 teaspoons of sesame seeds and 1/3 cup of cilantro leaves
salad dressing (recipe to follow) ingredients:
1 tablespoons of light sesame oil
2 tablespoon of soy sauce
2 tablespoons of canola oil or salad oil
salt and pepper to taste

**Note**: This salad is definitely open to interpretation. I suggest also adding thinly sliced carrot rounds or cucumber rounds. You can also add wonton strips or those (in my opinion) horrific chow mein “noodles” that come in a can (okay, they taste good too). I’ve also had Chinese chicken salad with uncooked, crumbled ramen noodles on top. Experiment with the ingredients that you like to eat. And of course it’s more fun if you make this salad your own.

Directions:

Shred the chicken into thin, small pieces. Combine all of the salad dressing ingredients in a small jar by shaking a few times until everything is combined. In a large bowl, mix together all of the salad ingredients except for the mandarin oranges. Add the salad dressing and carefully toss all of the ingredients together. Sprinkle the salad with sesame seeds and cilantro leaves and then top with the mandarin oranges. Serve immediately. Enjoy!