April 17, 2011

Nik's Asian Chicken Salad

Yet another instance where I wish my photography skills did my dishes justice! 

I...am a salad person. I have been since relatively early post-op. I was cleared for raw veggies pretty early out but didn't really attempt salad until, I'd say, about 5 or 6 months post-op. But when I did, I made a discovery. I could eat a decent amount of salad! (Mostly because the veggies are predominantly water) That was a comfort to me because eating in front of others was about to have me diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia ("Is that really ALL you can eat???)

This salad is what I call "Sunday food." Sundays in my house are a laid back day. We go to church and then we chillax. Lunch is often the biggest and most elaborate meal of the day. I don't typically do a gigantic Sunday dinner. This started off as Chinese Chop Salad but as I surveyed my pantry (and my accompanying unwillingness to go to the store) it became more of an overall Asian salad.

Nik's Asian Chicken Salad

Ingredients:

1 bag of your favorite salad mix (it's helpful if there are carrots already in there, otherwise put some in)
1/2 cup edamame (extracted from the pods)
2 large white mushrooms, sliced (if you want to get fancy you can get shitakes. I am cheap...so I don't)
1/4 c. almond slivers
1 small can mandarin oranges
Optional: tomatoes (to me a salad isn't a salad without tomatoes, cucumbers)

For the chicken:

3 large chicken breasts
1 c. unflavored Greek yogurt
1 tbsp lite soy sauce
1 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp minced garlic

Directions:

Place the Greek yogurt, soy sauce, ginger, red pepper flakes and minced garlic in a zip-top bag and marinate on the counter for an hour (or in the fridge for a few hours). The longer you marinate, the more tender the chicken will be.

When ready, grill your chicken with whatever grilling mechanism you see fit (I used my George Foreman grill) until done. Remove from heat and set aside.

Set a DRY skillet over a medium flame and allow the pan to get hot. Empty your almond slivers into it. The key to toasting nuts (especially almonds) is to not overtoast them. You can tell when they are ready in two ways. #1 - they change color. Here's my almonds just in the pan:


And here they are all toasty:


See the difference? Also when you begin to smell the nuts, they are ready to come off the heat. Much longer than that and you've got burnt nuts. Burnt nuts are not pleasant (pun VERY much intended).

In a bowl, empty your salad mix and throw your edamame and half your almonds in there. Drain your mandarin oranges (BONUS TIP: if you're ever in a place that doesn't sell no sugar added canned fruit, get the kind in light syrup. Bring it home, drain into a collander and rinse the fruit. Then place it in a container and put a little of your favorite sugar substitute in it). Add those to the bowl. Now comes the fun part. SHAKE YOUR SALAD!

Here is La Petite Diva (with new hairdo) shaking our salad:


Once the salad is good and mixed, plate up your salad mix. Dice your chicken on a cutting board and divide equally. Sprinkle each salad with a few of the remaining toasted almonds and top with your favorite dressing! As you can see, we're partial to Asian Sesame.

YUMMY!

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