Hello!
I made this for lunch on the weekend, and it was very quick, and so, so simple. It is from one of my favourite cookbooks by Rick Stein 'Far Eastern Odyssey'.
As I've mentioned before, he is one of my favourite sources for fabulous, easy to make recipes.
The only cooking involved in this is the chicken, and even that is just for 20 minutes.
The rest of it is a matter of slicing, dicing & mixing together.
I appreciate you may not have all of the ingredients in your pantry, e.g. rice vinegar. Just use any white vinegar (regular white vinegar, white wine vinegar, or even verjuice) as a substitute. Everything else is pretty standard pantry items I think.
Chinese leaf, I have no idea what that is, but if you have a good Asian grocer nearby you could probably get it. Per the cookbook's suggestion, I just used regular white cabbage, and this was delicious.
Serves 4
Chicken Salad w/ Chinese Cabbage, bean sprouts & mint
For the Salad
750g chicken thighs or breasts
100g shallots (aka baby onions or eshallots), very thinly sliced
400g Chinese Leaf, core removed, or white cabbage, finely shredded
100g bean sprouts
1 large carrot, grated (or thinly sliced)
1 big handful each of coriander & mint, roughly chopped
40g roasted peanuts, coarsely chopped
For the Dressing
3 tbsp fish sauce
3 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tbsp very finely chopped garlic
2 red bird's eye chillies, finely chopped
2) Put the sliced shallots into a large bowl, toss w/ 1/4 teaspoon of salt, a dash of the lime juice, and leave to soften for 30 minutes.
3) In a bowl, mix together all of the dressing ingredients.
4) Add the chicken to the bowl w/ the shallots, and add the Chinese leaf / cabbage, bean sprouts, shredded carrot, herbs & most of the peanuts. Pour over the dressing, season w/ black pepper & toss together well.
5) Serve up, sprinkling the remaining peanuts on top.
