Oriental Chicken Salad

One of my goals this year is to eat more vegetables. Oriental Chicken Salad is quick and easy to prepare–it makes an entire meal. Best of all it uses the bok choy cabbage growing in my garden and other vegetables for a healthy and low-fat entree. My version of “Oriental Chicken Salad” uses boneless chicken pieces which are stir fried and then added to a salad with homemade dressing. Oriental Chicken Salad has many variations and can easily be adapted to the ingredients on hand and for how many people are coming for supper. When I was single many years ago, I made some variant of this salad almost every weekday night for a quick supper meal for one person.

For the salad, I usually start with romaine lettuce. In this variation I’m adding bok choy from my garden, on the back right, green onions, bell peppers and carrots. Other ingredients that often make it into the salad are chunks of pineapple, cucumbers and snow peas. I use the pineapple juice in the dressing. I add chow mein noodles or the noodles from a package of Ramen soup for crunch.

Bok Choy

This winter I planted bok choy in my garden Bok choy is one of the easier vegetables to grow in a Louisiana garden. It is a very forgiving vegetable and does not need much care. Just cut the leaves off for supper and more leaves will grow back. Can’t ask for more than that. Bok choy It is a cool weather plant (I plant it in September and it grows all winter). We’re at the end of the growing season now.

Bok choy has a pungent, spicy flavor and it perhaps is a little tough. For this reason, I often mix it in with other lettuce or Napa cabbage. My memories from childhood is the bok choy was always stir fried for Chow Mein; but the cabbage tastes great raw in salads, too.

Oriental Chicken Salad

For this recipe, I stir fry boneless chicken tenders. Season the chicken with Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning or seasoned salt (or alternately onion and garlic salt), sear on both sides in a small amount of hot oil in a non-stick skillet, saute until cooked; about 5 to 10 minutes. Reduce heat if needed to avoid burning. Quick and simple. Then slice into chunks and add to the salad.

I served the salad with Chinese Carrot Relish. (The recipe is a post from March 2015 at //beyondgumbo.com/2015/03/24/ ).The salad dressing is a variation of an oil and vinegar dressing using pineapple juice from the canned pineapple, rice vinegar, soy sauce, seasonings and vegetable oil. I add a small amount of sesame oil and sesame seeds for an oriental flair.

Oriental Chicken Salad

Time: 30 minutes
Difficulty: easy
Print

Ingredients

Vegetable oil
1 lb skinless, boneless chicken tenders with center ligament removed
1 tsp Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning or seasoned salt or 1/2 tsp each onion salt and garlic salt
2 cups chopped Romaine lettuce
1 cup bok choy cabbage, rinsed well and chopped
2 green onions, sliced
1 – 2 Tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped
vegetables such as 1/2 sliced cucumber, 1/4 diced red and green bell pepper, 1 sliced carrot
1 cup snow peas, blanched and drained
1 small can of pineapple chunks, juice reserved
Ramen noodles from package of Ramen Soup, broken up, or 1 cup chow mein noodles
Chinese Carrot Relish (optional)

Oriental Sslad Dressing Ingredients

1/2 cup pineapple juice (from pineapple chunks) and water if needed
1/4 cup rice vinegar
2 Tbsp lite soy sauce
1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil
1/4 tsp salt (optional)
dash black pepper
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1 Tbsp sesame seeds
1 Tbsp sesame oil

Method and Steps

Add small amount oil to a medium non-stick skillet over medium high heat. Season the chicken tenders with Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning or seasoned salt (or onion salt and garlic salt). When the oil is hot, add the chicken tender pieces. Stir fry until chicken pieces are cooked through, approximately 5 minutes. Reduce heat if necessary to avoid burning. Remove from heat and dice into bite size pieces.
Add Romaine lettuce, bok choy cabbage, cilantro, green onions to salad bowl and mix. Add other vegetables including cucumber, red and green bell pepper, sliced carrots and snow peas. Drain the pineapple chunks, add chunks to salad and reserve the juice.
For the Oriental salad dressing, pour pineapple juice into a measuring cup, adding water if needed to make 1/2 cup. Add the pineapple juice to small food processor bowl along with the rice vinegar and lite soy sauce. While processor is running, pour in canola oil or vegetable oil. Add seasonings of salt (optional), black pepper and red pepper flakes. Add the sesame seeds and briefly mix in.
Pour salad dressing over salad and mix in. Sprinkle sesame oil over salad. Add the Ramen noodles or chow mein noodles over the salad.
Serve with Chinese Carrot Relish, optional.

Enjoy a quick, easy and healthy supper!