A New Project!

I have a new project!  Check out A Guy and His Oven (not exactly creative, but going for continuity) if you need something manlier than grilling.  Meanwhile, back to grilling.

Well, not exactly.  This last weekend I smoked a couple of chickens for a BBQ, and remembered that I had come across a salad recipe that used leftover chicken a while back, and after already having the leftovers once, I needed something different.  With that in mind, I prepared the Chicken and Snow Pea Salad With Spicy Peanut Dressing on page 362.

As you can see, I don't have the usual compilation of ingredients as the first picture.  To make a long story short, I deleted it on accident.  I'm sure that at this point in time, you find yourself already over it.  So, you have to boil the snow peas for a minute, and then (as you see below) shock them in ice water.  This makes them nice and crispy.

I then shredded the leftover chicken.

The rest of the salad was prepped as well.  It contained the snow peas, red bell pepper, the chicken, cucumbers, and green onions.

The dressing was obviously peanut butter based, but also contained chicken stock (to help thin it out), red wine vinegar, sesame oil, and chile oil.

A quick visit from Mr. Immersion Blender helped pull the dressing together.

Sesame seeds were toasted for five minutes before being added to the salad, and while not pictured, some fresh cilantro was also finely chopped and added to the salad.

I tossed everything together, and I had a salad!

I liked this salad for two reasons.  First, it was a complete departure from my usual salads.  Second, it provided an outlet for leftover chicken that I had clearly become tired of and needed something new with which to do.  Having said that, the peanut dressing is very flavorful and tasty, but misappropriated in this salad.  It honestly belongs with a noodle dish.  In fact, with the addition of some fish sauce, it would make a nice Pad Thai dressing.  Meanwhile, I will file this recipe under the category of "Good, Happy I Made It, But Probably Won't Ever Make Again."

189 recipes complete

184 recipes to go!