Asian Chicken Salad (and yeah, its healthy)

This salad is fresh, yummy and healthy. Sure there are some calories in the oils and honey. But it’s pretty minimal and hey, there’s broccoli, cabbage, carrots and all other sorts of yummy wholesome goodness. My sister, Britney, first told me to make a variation of this recipe. I am not one to follow recipes (yes, I get the irony here), so I totally winged it. The original was better than mine with the insertion of lime juice and jalapenos. I reverted back to what was much closer to the original recipe she gave me; changing it with more vinegar and soy to make it less heavy and calorically dense. When I make it, I normally double the recipe and pass some off to a neighbor or friend. The recipe here is about one and a half mason jars worth. So you can use it one night and then store it for use a week or two later. Or you can chose to go on an Asian chicken salad binge and eat it all in a day or two. The choice is yours.

For the salad dressing:

I/2 cup vegetable oil

6 tbsp rice wine vinegar

6 tbsp honey

4 tbsp soy sauce

4 tsp sirach

3 tsp sesame oil

2 tsp grated ginger

4 garlic cloves

For the Salad:

Romaine

Red cabbage

Bag of broccoli slaw

Crunchy Asian noodles

Cilantro

Chicken breast (I like to brine all my chicken it, just makes it sooo much more moist and flavorful. If you chose to brine your chicken you will also need salt and brown sugar... we will get to that later.)

The dressing can be prepared at any point ahead of time. I put the grated ginger, the garlic, the soy sauce and vinegar into the Vitamix. Pulse until smooth.

If you do chose to brine your chicken... which I recommend, do so about 3-6 hours in advance. It is so simple. If you’re just doing 2 breasts you can throw them in a medium size bowl filled with 3 cups of cold water. Mix in 3 tbsp sea salt and 3 tbsp brown sugar. Mix together, add some ice and plop in your chicken. When you go to cook it, it is filled with flavor and is super moist.)

So cook off your chicken, slice it or dice it and set it aside. :)

The salad mixture is just the cut up romaine (I almost always cut mine small like a chopped salad), finely cut red cabbage, cilantro and the broccoli slaw mix. Toss them all together in whatever proportions you chose.

Stir in a few tbsp of the salad dressing and top with crunchy noodles and chicken. You have a healthy, yummy, crowd pleasing meal. You could add edamame, shredded carrots or a whole bevy of other ingredients. :)