On the Menu
Asian chicken cabbage salad
This healthy Asian chicken cabbage salad is an easy, fun and flexible salad. It can be made for a lunch or dinner, a main course or side salad. You can easily bring it on a picnic as long as you keep the chicken well refrigerated (or barbeque it on site). The cabbage is a good source of dietary fiber and and an excellent source of vitamin C, and with this salad and the accompanying chicken you can fill up on 'free vegetables' and a little protein without the carbohydrates that our bodies have a tendency to turn into fat!
We prepared the cabbage with a benriner or mandolin - a handy and very efficient but sometimes dangerous vegetable slicing device imported from Japan. Mom knicked her thumb while slicing the cabbage; a few months earlier Dad cut off the tip of his ring finger slicing potatoes for a scalloped potato dish. The conversation back then went like this:
Mom: Be careful slicing that potato - you should be using the tool to hold the potato against the blade.
Dad: Don't worry, I will, once I've cut the first few slices off and my hand is closer to the blade.
[Sound of 5 slices of potato going through the mandolin]
Dad: Oh, damn! Quick, get me a bandaid!
Mom: Very funny...
You can enjoy this recipe with or without fingertips - we prefer without! Be careful with that cabbage!
Ingredients
The chicken:
6 chicken thighs
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 Tbsp minced ginger
The cabbage salad:
8+ cups red cabbage, shredded or sliced
3+ cups bok choy, shredded or sliced
2 carrots, shredded
3 green onions, minced
1 bell pepper, orange or red, chopped into 1" x 1/4" pieces
5 leaves basil, sliced
The dressing:
3 Tbsp avocado or sunflower oil
3 Tbsp toasted sesame oil
1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp rice vinegar
2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp soy sauce
Pinch cayenne pepper
Directions
1. Whisk dressing together in a small bowl or shake together in a mason jar.
2. Rub garlic and ginger over the chicken and then pour 1/3 the dressing over the chicken. Let marinate for an hour or two if possible.
3. Saute or fry the chicken on medium high heat until brown, then cover and reduce heat slightly and cook through. Alternately you can barbeque the chicken.
4. Prepare all vegetables and place in a large bowl. Toss thoroughly with the remaining dressing (2/3 of the total).
5. Serve the salad topped with a piece of chicken.
This Asian chicken cabbage salad could be served with warm soba noodles on the side if you do want a carbohydrate with it.
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