Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Thai Chicken salad- Homemade is sometimes better than a restaurant

I enjoy home cooking just as much as eating out, and some of the most fantastic food I have eaten was homemade.  Last night, my girlfriend, Lindsay, invited us for dinner.  She always cooks something that I love and that is healthy.  This time she made a Thai chicken salad.   Wow!   She marinated the chicken in rice vinegar, cilantro, garlic and lime before grilling it.  It smelled and tasted fantastic!  We added  a mixture of cucumber, edamame, carrots, red pepper, green onions and cashews to the bed of romaine.  Yummy!!!!  To top it all off she made a homemade spicy thai dressing with rice vinegar, siracha, sesame oil, peanut butter, a bit of sugar and veggie oil.  Here is the finished product all mixed up:
Thai chicken salad
My son had two helpings, and as we were leaving he said he needed to go back and thank Ms. Lindsay again for the great meal.   Both my girls loved the chicken and one of them loved that the veggies had edamame and cashews!   It was such a fantastic meal!  I kept saying " this is so good".  To add to the goodness,  I had a glass of homemade beer (Das Boot-German ale) brewed by Lindsay's husband Joe! Needless to say, I was a happy girl last night!!  
Here is the recipe as Lindsay makes it:
    Chicken
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 clove garlic, chopped
  • 1 cup cilantro, chopped
  • juice of 1 lime
  • dash of salt
  • 1 medium boneless, skinless chicken breast (6-8 oz)
  • Salad
  • 4 cups chopped romaine
  • 1 cup diced cucumber
  • 1 cup edamame, cooked
  • 1 cup shredded carrots
  • 1 cup chopped red bell pepper
  • 1/4 cup chopped green onions
  • Cashews
  • Dressing
  • 4 tablespoons rice vinegar
  • 5 tablespoons siracha
  • 1 teaspoon sesame oil
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • salt and pepper, to taste
  • 1/4 cup peanut butter
  • 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
    For the chicken:
  1. In a ziptop bag, combine all of the marinade ingredients. Add the chicken breast. Marinate for at least 4 hours - up to overnight.
  2. Heat the oven to 350F. Discard the marinade place the chicken breast in a baking dish. Bake until the internal temperature is 165, about 40 minutes.  Alternatively grill 4-5 minutes each side until cooked through.   When cool enough to handle, shred or cut into small pieces.   
  3. For the salad:
  4. In a large bowl, combine all of the salad ingredients except the romaine and set aside. Add in the chicken when cooked and add all ingredients to the bed of romaine
  5. For the dressing:
  6. Combine all dressing ingredients and whisk well to combine. Pour over the salad.

Recipe was modified from tasteandtellblog.com.

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