I made this at a recent potluck and it got rave reviews. Here’s my recipe for Asian Chicken Salad.

I used this recipe as my basis, but made some tweaks along the way.

• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil (optional)
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 3 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 1 (8 ounce) package dried rice noodles
• About three cups (a generous double handful) of Spring Greens/Mesclun/Whatever your grocer calls it
• 4 boneless chicken breast halves
• 2 tsp. Argyle Street Asian Blend, or similar spice blend
• 3 green onions, chopped
• 1/2 lb snow peas, tips trimmed and chopped in half
• 1 head of baby bok choy, washed and torn into bite-sized pieces
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds, toasted

1. First, take four chicken breast halves and carefully cut them in half horizontally, effectively halving their thickness. Season each one liberally on both sides with The Spice House’s Argyle Street Asian Blend (which contains toasted and black sesame seeds, lemon grass, ginger, cilantro, onion, garlic, chile peppers, coriander, white pepper, and salt). You can use whatever spice blend you like, really, or just salt and pepper.
2. Add a tablespoon or two of vegetable oil to the sauté pan and add half of the chicken breasts. Make sure that you have the pan nice and hot because you want some nice browning; also, don’t crowd them too much – you want to sauté them, not steam them.
3. Once the breasts are browned on both sides and cooked through (155 F on an instant read thermometer), remove them to a plate and cover them lightly with aluminum foil. Cook the other half of the chicken breasts in a similar fashion. When they’re done, put them on the same plate with the first batch and wait about ten minutes, then pop them into the refrigerator (or freezer, if you’re in a hurry) to cool them down.
4. Once cool enough to handle, shred them by hand into bite-sized pieces (shred, don’t cut – shredded chicken is much more appealing in this salad).
5. Combine the brown sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil, vegetable oil, and rice vinegar in a container and set aside.
6. Pour enough vegetable oil into a skillet to give a 1/4″ depth and heat on high. Break up the rice noodles carefully (these will get everywhere if you’re not careful! You may want to do this over newspapers or wax paper) and place them into the hot oil to fry. They will puff up and brown as they cook. You want to make sure these are cooked all the way through because undercooked noodles are far too crunchy and unpleasant. Set the cooked noodles aside to cool.
7. In a large bowl, combine the Spring Mix, green onions, snow peas, baby bok choy, sesame seeds, and rice noodles. Toss lightly, then add the dressing. Add the shredded chicken, toss lightly again and serve immediately.

DUNCAN’S NOTES: The noodles are a pain in the butt, but a nice addition to the salad. I’d like to experiment with different kinds of noodles for this. Also, since I made this for a potluck, I put the Spring Mix in one bag, the chopped vegetables in another bag, the noodles in another bag, and kept the dressing in a Tupperware container. I put all of this into a cooler with an ice pack to keep everything fresh. When the time came to eat, I used a large bowl I had brought to combine everything on the spot, thereby preventing the greens from wilting. I gave the chicken a quick 30 seconds in the microwave, just enough to warm it up a bit, before adding it to the salad, but that’s optional I think.