Last night I broke one of the cardinal rules of cooking, and that is to not prepare a new dish for the first time for company. Okay, I guess I actually do that kind of a lot for our friends, but last night was one that I had never even tried somewhere else. I saw it mentioned on a bulletin board not too long ago, and I just knew it would be perfect for one of our Sunday Company Dinners. The reason that I knew it was going to be good, was that it was from Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa herself. Ina’s recipes are ones that I can always count on, I have never had a bad one. The only things I ever change with her recipes is that I usually use less fat overall, using less oil or a less fat item than what she calls for. Other than that, the Barefoot Contessa never disappoints, and her Chinese Chicken Salad worked it’s magic perfectly.
One of the first things I liked when I saw this recipe was that it used whole chicken breasts. One of the things that I have stopped buying as of late is boneless skinless chicken breasts. They just taste insipid and bland to me. Not to mention, they are twice the price off the bone, and I have no problems de-boning my own chicken if I did want the boneless-skinless variety. I bought a large package of bone-in skin on chicken breasts and quickly prepared them for baking. Ina instructed me to rub the breasts with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. I opted to leave the oil off, and I don’t think they suffered ill because of it. I suppose if you really were concerned, you could pull the chicken skin off before baking, but then personally, I would add that drizzle of oil, or you’re going to dry out your chicken before it cooks, and you must use bone-in chicken, that’s just where the flavor is. (But that’s me, again, if the boneless-skinless are your thing, go nuts, but I’m not responsible for the lack in flavor.)
While the chicken baked up and cooled, I very quickly prepared the remaining ingredients. The first step was toasting sesame seeds. I did that on my stove top in a skillet, and let me say, keep an eye on sesame seeds when toasting. They go from white to burnt very quickly. The first batch went straight in the garbage, where I quickly learned that hot sesame seeds melt plastic garbage bags. Who knew? After my seeds were toasted, I blanched some asparagus (2-3 minutes tops, I actually overcooked mine just a touch) and sliced my peppers. The recipe called for sliced red bell pepper, but I opted to use those fun mini multi-colored peppers, sliced into rings. They added fantastic color to the salad, as well as their light flavor and sweetness. Then the scallions were sliced and set aside while I prepared the dressing.
The dressing was where I made the biggest change to the recipe. I followed it to the letter except for the oil. I opted to use 2/3 of a cup of oil instead of the full cup called for. And actually, the next time I make it I plan to use 1/2 a cup. It was just fine without the extra oil, and I bet the flavors would come through better with less oil. To my tastes, there was also too much salt. The caveat being that I use sea salt almost exclusively in my cooking, so 4 teaspoons of sea salt may not measure up to 4 teaspoons of her kosher salt. I ended up using more like 3 1/2 teaspoons by measure, and to me that was too much. So my recommendation would be to start with half the salt. Especially if you use a full sodium soy sauce. I used a low-sodium soy, so I imagine with my dressing, full sodium soy and full amount of salt would have been inedible to me. Just keep an eye on it is what I’m saying. To make the dressing, I literally just dropped everything into my blender and pureed until thick and creamy, it took about two seconds.
So while there is the time to bake the chicken breasts, and the time to chop and blanch the asparagus, overall, this isn’t a highly hands-on salad. It was perfect as an entree, and it was well received by everyone except the munchkins. Abigail and Zander gave it two thumbs down, with “yucky” as a descriptive, so I guess it’s more for the adult palates. The peanutty dressing was great- and one of our guests suggested adding some chili to it for heat, and I agree completely- especially since I know this isn’t one my kids will want to eat. I would use Jamie Oliver’s method and pick up a whole fresh red Thai chili if you can find one, and then use a microplane to grate it into the dressing. Oh, the layer of flavor that would add to an already spectacular salad. This salad as written will serve 12-15 as a hearty entree, if you’re serving as a side, it would likely serve 24, so this is perfect for a large gathering or a summer picnic.
Chinese Chicken Salad
by Ina Garten
8 split chicken breasts (bone in — skin on)
Good olive oil
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 pound asparagus — ends removed,
cut into thirds diagonally
2 red bell peppers — cored and seeded
4 scallions (white and green parts) — sliced diagonally
2 tablespoons white sesame seeds — toasted
For the Dressing
1 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup good apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup soy sauce
3 tablespoons dark sesame oil
1 tablespoon honey
2 garlic cloves — minced
1 teaspoon peeled — grated fresh ginger
1 tablespoon white sesame seeds — toasted (see Note)
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
4 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Place the chicken breasts on a sheet pan and rub the skin with olive oil. Sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Roast for 35 to 40 minutes, until the chicken is just cooked. Set aside until cool enough to handle.
Remove the meat from the bones, discard the skin, and shred the chicken in large, bite-sized pieces.
Blanch the asparagus in a pot of boiling salted water for 3 to 5 minutes, until crisp-tender. Plunge into ice water to stop the cooking. Drain. Cut the peppers into strips about the size of the asparagus pieces. Combine the shredded chicken, asparagus, and peppers in a large bowl.
Whisk together all of the ingredients for the dressing and pour over the chicken and vegetables. Add the scallions and sesame seeds and season to taste. Serve cold or at room temperature.
*Add the dressing just before serving, store extra salad undressed and separate, as the chicken tends to get mushy standing in the dressing overnight.