Grilled Chinese Chicken Salad with Sesame Dressing

This round of the recipe swap is Summer Salads and I got this great Chinese Chicken Salad from MaryEllen over at MaryEllen’s Cooking Creations. I’ve made a couple of recipes from her blog and they always turn out well. Thanks to Sarah at A Taste of Home Cooking for arranging these swaps. I’ve tried a lot of recipes that I wouldn’t have otherwise tried. And it gives my blog readers a chance to see something other than baked treats here on my blog. 

I love Chinese Chicken Salad, so I was really happy that I got this recipe. It’s a great recipe because so much of the prep is done in advance and then all you have to do at dinner time is grill the chicken and assemble the salad. I guess that I make enough Asian food that I even had all the ingredients on hand. I didn’t have Sriracha hot sauce, but I had some other hot sauce that I used. I don’t really like heat all that much any way so I just included a tiny bit of that. 

My only struggle with this recipe was getting the chicken cooked all the way through. The chicken breasts I used were huge, so they took a long time to cook. I really, really liked this salad, and loved that it was so easy to put together. My husband, who is not much of a salad fan at all, even enjoyed it (but he didn’t eat much of his lettuce). He liked the pasta that was mixed in with the salad and he liked the dressing. I consider that a big win!

Grilled Chinese Chicken Salad with Sesame Dressing

2 chicken breasts

1/4 cup olive oil

1 tablespoon sesame oil

3 tablespoon soy sauce

2 cloves minced garlic

1 tablespoon hoisin sauce

½-1 teaspoon hot sauce

1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoon rice vinegar

1 teaspoon sesame oil

¼ teaspoon sugar

2 teaspoon soy sauce

Salt and pepper

4 cups chopped romaine lettuce

2 green onions, chopped

1 carrot, julienned

1/2 cup bean sprouts

1 cup cooked pasta noodles, cooled - I used Ramen noodles

   

The night or morning before serving, marinate the chicken. In a large ziplock bag, place the two chicken breasts. In a bowl whisk together the olive oil, sesame oil, soy sauce, garlic, hoisin sauce, and hot sauce. Pour into the bag and seal. Refrigerate for 4-24 hours.

Make the dressing: in a small bowl whisk together the olive oil, rice vinegar, sesame oil, sugar, soy sauce, salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate until the salad is ready to serve.

In a large bowl, combine the Romaine, carrots, green onions, bean sprouts, and pasta. Add the dressing and toss to combine.

Heat the grill to 400 degrees (I used medium high) and grill the chicken until the internal temperature reaches 160 degrees. Start with about 5 minutes per side, but it may take longer depending on the size of your chicken breasts. Slice the chicken breasts and serve on top of the salad.

Recipe from MaryEllen’s Cooking Creations