Chinese Chicken Salad

Cabbage is not so bad as I once thought it was. In the old days I associated cabbage with either bitter, flavorless steamed cabbage or the salty mayonnaise-drenched concoction that passes for coleslaw in most restaurants. I've come to enjoy it much more in our home preparations, either sauteed, in a more interesting slaw preparation, or in this case, as a base for a salad. And this is a good thing because it comes in abundance in our summer CSA!

Whitney picked up this recipe from Cook's Country, and there's an official video of their prep here. It combines a bunch of my favorite Asian flavors with some chicken to make a nice hearty salad. As long as we have recipes like this, I don't mind having cabbage all season long!

Cook's Country Chinese Chicken Salad from a beautiful mess blog

   This seems to serve 4; we halved the recipe

Ingredients

2 large oranges

1/4 cup rice vinegar

1/4 cup soy sauce

3 tablespoons grated fresh ginger

3 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon Asian chili-garlic sauce

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil

4 (6-8 ounce) boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed

2 romaine lettuce hearts, sliced thin

1/2 small head napa cabbage, cored and shredded (6 cups)

2 red bell peppers, cut into matchsticks

   We substituted Chinese cabbage from our CSA for the romaine and napa cabbage

1 cup fresh cilantro leaves (we omitted)

1 cup salted dry-roasted peanuts, chopped

6 scallions, sliced thin

Directions

   Segment the oranges and transfer the segments to a small bowl. Set aside for garnishing the salad. Squeeze the juice from the orange membranes into a second bowl (juice should measure 1/4 cup). Or, if you're lazy like me, you can just measure out 1/4 cup of store-bought orange juice.

   Combine the orange juice, vinegar, soy sauce, ginger, sugar, and chili-garlic sauce in a bowl. Transfer 1/2 cup of the orange juice mixture to a 12-inch skillet. Slowly whisk vegetable oil and sesame oil into the remaining orange juice mixture to make the vinaigrette. Set aside.

   Bring the orange juice mixture in the skillet to a boil. Add the chicken, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer until the meat registers 160 degrees (about 10-15 minutes), flipping halfway through cooking. Transfer the chicken to a plate and let rest for 5-10 minutes.

   Meanwhile, boil the pan juices until reduced to 1/4 cup. This will only take about 1-3 minutes. Set aside. Shred the chicken into bite size pieces, transfer to a medium bowl, and toss with the reduced sauce, any accumulated juices, and 2 tablespoons of the vinaigrette. Let sit for 10 minutes.

   Toss the romaine, cabbage, bell peppers, cilantro, peanuts, and scallions with the remaining vinaigrette in a large bowl. Transfer to a serving platter and top with the chicken and oranges.