Vietnamese Chicken Salad
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup lime juice
- 3-1/2 tablespoons fish sauce
- 1-1/2 teaspoons white sugar
- 2 medium garlic cloves minced
- 1/2 small red onion halved and very thinly sliced
- 3 cups shredded cooked chicken see Notes
- 1/2 medium head green or red cabbage 14 ounces, cored and shredded (about 4 cups)
- 2 medium carrots peeled and shredded on the large holes of a box grater (about 1 cup)
- 1 red orange or yellow pepper, seeded and thinly sliced
- 1 to 2 medium jalapeño pepper seeded and minced (depends on your heat tolerance)
- 1 cup lightly packed fresh basil torn
- 1 cup lightly packed fresh cilantro leaves and tender stems roughly chopped
- 1/2 cup roasted salted peanuts, roughly chopped
- Garnish with lime wedges
Instructions
- In a small bowl, stir together the lime juice, fish sauce, sugar and garlic, until the sugar dissolves. Add the red onion and let stand for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Doing this removes the bite out of the raw onion – don’t skip this step.
- In a large bowl, toss together the chicken, cabbage, carrots, red, orange or yellow pepper, jalapeño, basil and cilantro.
- Pour the dressing (with onions) over the chicken-cabbage mixture. Serve immediately or refrigerate up to an hour.
- Before serving, sprinkle the top of the salad with peanuts.
- Serve with lime wedges.
Notes
* 1 cup of shredded chicken is about 6 ounces cooked chicken. You lose about 25% in cooking meat so if you start with 8 ounces it will be about 6 ounces once it’s cooked. An average store-bought rotisserie chicken will yield about 3 cups of shredded meat.
* If you have other vegetables, feel free to add them. I had a small head of broccoli so I steamed/blanched it and cut it up into small pieces.
* If you have other vegetables, feel free to add them. I had a small head of broccoli so I steamed/blanched it and cut it up into small pieces.
