Chinese Chicken Salad with Edamame & Homemade Dressing

Posted by Judy | Bebe Love Okazu on April 9, 2010 in Blog, Chicken, Family Favorites, Salad | 8 comments

I love Costco rotisserie chicken – – – it’s the best thing ever.  I use this for so many of our family’s fave dishes.

Using pre-cooked chicken cuts out a big step in many of my recipes.  Last month I made Chicken Mac Soup using leftover Costco rotisserie chicken that I FoodSaved and was hiding in the back of our freezer.

A few days ago we had rotisserie chicken for dinner so I made Chinese chicken salads for lunch with the leftovers.  It was refreshing, light and absolutely yummy!

My mom always fed us Chinese chicken salad with her homemade dressing that she would whip-up from ingredients in the pantry.  She’d shake up the dressing in an old glass jar (I’m guessing it was probably a Smucker’s jar)  and pour it right over the salad before tossing. However, I recently converted her to bottled Chinese chicken salad dressing from the king of Chinese chicken salad purveyors – Feast from the East in Westwood, CA.  And guess who sells it…  yep, COSTCO!

I, like many of my close friends, grew up on Feast from the East Chinese chicken salad….  Romaine lettuce, green onions, sesame seeds, shredded chicken, sliced almonds and crunchy fried wonton strips.  Oh, so good!

The Chinese chicken salad that I make all depends on what’s in my pantry and fridge.

What I ended up making for lunch was a salad that included romaine lettuce, green onions, shredded chicken, green onions, edamame, sesame seeds and fried wonton strips.  As long as you’ve got the lettuce, chicken and dressing the salad will taste delicious and any other ingredients are like icing on the cake.

Although I haven’t made my mom’s salad dressing in a while because the Feast from the East Sesame Dressing is so convenient, I have included her recipe in the event you’d like to try it.  My mom’s recipe is quite good and it’s easy to make if you don’t have any Feast from the East dressing on hand.

Mom’s Chinese Chicken Salad Dressing

• 3 tablespoons white sugar
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 4 tablespoons rice vinegar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• Dash of pepper

1) Combine all ingredients in a jar with lid or any tupperware with lid.  Shake vigorously.  Chill for 2 -3 hours.  Shake well before pouring over salad, toss, then serve.

With this dressing, you’ll find that the sugar never really dissolves completely, so make sure you shake well before using.

Being Japanese, my mom always bought rice vinegar from the asian market and she never bought distilled vinegar.  Rice vinegar may be substituted with distilled vinegar but the dressing is more mild and has a delicate flavor if rice vinegar is used.

Chinese Chicken Salad

1) I always start by frying the wonton strips.  I usually keep a pack or two of wonton skins in the freezer. They keep well frozen and they’re easy to defrost.  I just pop it in the microwave on defrost for 2 – 3 minutes.

SHOPPING TIP:  I buy wonton skins at either Marukai or 99 Ranch since they’ve usually got the best prices.  I’m not brand loyal when it comes to wonton skins – they all work out pretty well and taste fine.

2) Take 4 -5 sheets of wonton skins at a time and slice.  I usually fry about 15 sheets.  (I make extra and store them in tupperware lined with a paper towel.  They keep for about a week in the fridge and they don’t get oily. These can also be stored in the freezer.)  Separate each slice before frying.  Set out a plate lined with paper towels to drain the fried wonton strips.

3) In a shallow pan heat canola oil (or oil of your choice) on medium high.  When the oil is hot, add about 10  wonton strips to the pan and fry for about 1 1/2 minutes until light brown.  You’ll need to turn them over at least once and I highly recommend pulling them out of the oil while they are still very light brown. They burn quickly.  Also, as they cool their color darkens.

4) Let the fried wonton skins drain and cool on the plate lined with paper towels.

5) Wash and rough chop lettuce and run through a salad spinner.

6) Chop green onions.

7) Shred rotisserie chicken breast (or leg meat if that’s all you have).  If you don’t have any Costco rotisserie chicken  just boil a chicken breast for about 20 minutes.  That’s what I usually do when I’m in need of quick cooked chicken.  I like buying the skinless, boneless chicken breasts and legs that are individually packaged from Costco.

8) Edamame.  I bet you’re wondering why there’s edamame in my Chinese chicken salad.  I cooked a bag of frozen edamame the day before as an afternoon snack and had a handful of them leftover.  So I shelled them and threw them in the salad and they were surprisingly good.  I highly recommend it.

9) My favorite ingredient in Chinese chicken salad is cilantro.  Usually I have some in the fridge but I didn’t have any!!!  Devastating…

10) I buy sliced or slivered almonds from Trader Joe’s and usually keep them in the freezer – but I was out of these too.  Oh well.

11) My mom used to put canned mandarin orange slices in our salad if she had them but I never really liked fruit in my salad which is why I never add them to my Chinese chicken salads.  If you like fruit, by all means please try this with mandarin oranges – – – it also makes the salad look very pretty.

12) In a large bowl, throw all the ingredients into a bowl.  Don’t forget lots of sesame seeds.  Pour salad dressing and toss. Put salad in serving bowls and garnish with more wonton strips.

Enjoy!

Judy / bebe mama