Shredded Chicken Salad

[SandraL]

Shredded Chicken Salad

This is my all time favorite summer mealtime salad. Sorry I don’t have the nutritional information on this one but it is healthy! The dressing is so yummy! Serve with a good bun or loaf of bread from a nice bakery. (I don’t bake bread that is for darn sure!)

Serves 4 to 6

Salad

1 cup water

Coarse salt ( I use sea salt)

2 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (1 pound)

1 head iceberg lettuce (about 1 pound), quartered, cored, and thinly sliced

2 red bell peppers, cored, seeded, deveined and cut into ¼ inch thick strips

1 cucumber, scrubbed, quartered lengthwise, seeds removed and thinly sliced

2 to 3 scallions (or green onions), thinly sliced crosswise

2 tablespoons chopped unsalted peanuts

Directions

1. Bring the water to a boil in a medium skillet. Add a few pinches of salt, and the chicken. Cover and cook over low heat for 5 minutes. Remove from heat, and let steam for 5 minutes. Remove chicken from skillet and let stand until cool enough to handle. Shred chicken with a fork. (I just slice it thinly into bite size pieces.)

2. In a large bowl, toss the chicken, lettuce, bell peppers, cucumber, scallions, and vinaigrette. Taste, and adjust for seasoning. Sprinkle with chopped peanuts.

Quick Peanut Vinaigrette

4 tablespoons chopped unsalted peanuts

¼ cup rice wine vinegar

1 tablespoon soy sauce

Juice of 1 lime

½ teaspoon toasted sesame oil

½ teaspoon coarse salt

¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper

3 tablespoons vegetable oil (this is what recipe calls for but I use EVOO…extra virgin olive oil…much healthier)

2 tablespoons water (optional if needed)

Directions

In a blender, puree the peanuts, vinegar, soy sauce, lime juice, sesame oil, salt and pepper. With the machine running, add oil in a slow steady stream. Continue blending until dressing is thick and emulsified. If the dressing is too thick, thin with a little water.

This recipe is lunch company worthy for sure! Make sure you use fresh peanuts. Old ones are quite yucky and ruin it. Trust me I have tried them.

I have gone ½ and ½ romaine and iceberg as pretty sure I have heard that romaine is much more nutritional than iceberg.

I know this sounds fairly complex…but trust me it is not…if I can do it you can too!

And your friends will think you are a gourmet chef like Randy!

Happy summer eating!

[CaroleHammett]

Thanks for the posting, Sandra. The peanut vinaigrette sounds really good. I'm definitely going to try making that one.

As to the salad greens, the rule of thumb is the darker the green, the healthier--which is why I began using spinach as a substitute for iceberg whenever possible. Another substitute is arugula, but both may be too "soft" (limp) compared to iceberg and romaine?

As to your baking bread, I would never have expected it of someone who (like me) didn't know how to boil an egg!

Carole

In 1960, Americans spent 17.5 percent of their income on food and 5.2 percent on health care. Today, they spend 9.9 percent on food and 16 percent on health care.