Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Oriental Chicken Salad

 With the warm weather here, it also means the days stay lit longer. That means more work can be done and Scott comes into the house later at night. He has more time to ride his special 2 year old horses and that makes him very hapy. It allows me personal time in the kitchen to come up with my next great meal. 

Something light, not too filling, not hot - I am already hot. How about Oriental Chicken Salad? It is easy. Just prep some ingredients and throw it in the refrigerator to macerate. 

Oriental Chicken Salad - Melissa's Version
  • 2 - Packages Oriental Top Ramen
  • Chicken - tenders or filets
  • Slivered almonds - they come in small packages usually so get two
  • Sesame Seeds - a heavy sprinkle 
  • Cole slaw Mix - cabbage and carrot combo
  • Cilantro - one bunch chopped 
  • Bell pepper (optional) - I used a yellow one.
  • Girard's Chinese Chicken Salad Dressing or any Asian variety you prefer

1. Boil two packages of Oriental Top Ramen for only about a minute in a half, you want the noodles al dente. Put in a bowl and cool  in the fridge while you assemble the rest of the salad.

2. Boil a package on chicken tenders in water, it takes a bout 7 - 10 minutes because they are very small pieces. You can use any cut of chicken just make sure they are cooked through. Let them cool and shred. You too could put these in the fridge to cool down so it will not wilt the salad when mixed together.

3. On a baking sheet, toast slivered almonds and sesame seeds in a 300 degree oven. Watch them! They burn very quickly! I ruined one batch by being careless!

4. Now take your bowl and start assembling the salad.

5. Open a package of cole slaw mix - Cabbage and carrots pre-sliced from the grocery store. Such a timesaver!

6. Chop up a head of cilantro, the more the better in my book. I also had a bell pepper on hand so I sliced that up and threw it in top. There are no specifics around here! Just wing it!

7. Mix in the cooled noodles, chicken, almonds and sesame seeds.

8. The best easy dressing for this salad is Girard's Chinese Chicken Salad dressing. I used a half of a bottle dressing it. Mix thoroughly and let it all hang out in the fridge for awhile, it gets better the longer it sits.

9. Enjoy!

3 comments:

JustinM said...

I have the CPK cookbook and I've made their Oriental Chicken Salad several times, but no matter how exactly I follow the recipe, it never tastes as good as at the restaurant. (I'm not a huge CPK fan, but I freaking love that salad.) I think they're holding something back in the recipe.

I'm going to try yours soon.

AllThingsYummy said...

That looks delicious.

Melissa Good Taste said...

CPK's salad is much better than this! But, it is an easy fix! Thanks for the comments Yummy!