This recipe came from Jerry who has an excellent blog, Jerry's Thoughts, Musings, and Rants.
What a great salad with tons of flavor and spice! I followed Jerry's advice and roasted the chicken and made the dressing on one night, then put the whole thing together the next night. Delicious and healthy!
I pretty much followed the recipe exactly except that I added some mixed greens from my garden to a small head of Napa cabbage. I'm growing some Thai basil so I threw that in too along with the mint and cilantro. I didn't have bird's eye chilies so I used some chili-garlic sauce - it was pretty spicy. :)
Recipe is below. Thanks Jerry!
Other Sunday Salad Sampler participants can be found here. Next up is Tuna Salad Nicoise.
Jerry wrote:
We first had this a few months ago at one of the cooking classes that we attend. I've modified the recipe a bit - i.e. added the chopped, roasted nuts as the garnish etc.
It is really two separate components - the chicken and the vegetable base. Each has its own dressing.
We loved this salad - it was fresh tasting and had a wonderful mix of flavours and textures which is so characteristic of Thai cooking. I doubt that it is 'authentic' Thai . . . but it is tasty!
It looks like a lot of ingredients but it comes together quite nicely. When I make it I cook the chicken the night before - so it can cool before I shred it, and make the dressing for the vegetables as well. Then the next day the salad itself comes together nicely.
Thai Chicken Salad
For the chicken:
4 roasted chicken breasts
½ tsp chopped galangal (can substitute with ginger)
Juice of two limes
1 ½ tsp minced bird’s eye chilies (or 1 tsp chili paste such as sambel oelek)
2 shallots, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 kaffir lime laves – centre rib removed, cut in a chiffonade
¾ tsp fish sauce
Shred the chicken breast.
Mix all of the dressing ingredients.
Toss the shredded chicken with the dressing. Adjust the seasonings – there should be a balance of hot, sour, and salt. To adjust seasonings in Thai food follow these rough guidelines . . . if it is too sweet add more fish sauce . . . too salty add more sugar . . . not tangy enough - add more lime juice . . . not hot enough - add more chili or some sambel oelek
For the salad base:
2 T fish sauce
2 T palm sugar – (can substitute with regular or brown sugar)
¼ cup lime juice
4 garlic cloves, minced
4 bird’s eye chilies, minced
1 bunch watercress, trimmed
8 Napa cabbage leaves cut in a chiffonade
16 cherry tomatoes cut in half
1 cup blanched green beans, cut into 1-inch lengths
½ bunch cilantro, leaves trimmed and coarsely chopped
½ bunch mint, leaves trimmed and cut in a chiffonade
½ cup roasted peanuts (non-salted) or cashews, chopped
Mix the fish sauce through to chilies in a jar. Stir/shake well to dissolve sugar. Taste for seasonings). Store it in the refrigerator overnight so the flavours come together.
Mix together the watercress through mint in a large bowl.
Toss with dressing.
To serve:
Divide the vegetable mixture amongst 4 plates.
Add the chicken on top of the vegetable mixture.
Sprinkle with chopped, roasted nuts. You can also add some cilantro to garnish.
Comments (3)
Looks great. I bet it would be amazing with thai basil! I wish that I had thought of that.
Posted by Jerry | May 17, 2009 10:15 PM
Posted on May 17, 2009 22:15
Hi Annie, yum! That looks so good. I love your presentation with the little tiny tomatoes.
Looks like a great recipe from Jerry! Thanks for sharing your photo. Have a great Monday.
Posted by Kathy (Trekcapri) | May 18, 2009 10:03 AM
Posted on May 18, 2009 10:03
If I had actually seen the note about roasting chicken and making dressing the night before . . .I did spread it out over most of an afternoon.
Posted by Marcia | May 18, 2009 2:24 PM
Posted on May 18, 2009 14:24