Oriental Style Chicken Salad

I told you this story before here about a ready made salad dressing that came with a packet of ready washed salad leaves. The dressing was very tasty and I checked the ingredients listing but it wasn't very helpful.

This dressing that I recreated was the first prototype and it tasted good though I could not get the exact taste as the ready made one. But it had all the elements of sweet, sour and salty, which is what I love in a good salad dressing.

The recipe below is good for 4 servings and since it's something I made up, you can always make your own adjustments to suit your own taste. I used my Chilli Bean Sauce Roasted Chicken in the salad but you can also use any Chinese style roasted or even steamed chicken.

Oriental Style Chicken Salad
Recipe source : Phong Hong as inspired by a store bought dressing

Salad ingredients :
- Mixed salad greens
- Carrots, grated
- Cucumbers, sliced
- Tomatoes, sliced
- Alfalfa sprouts
- Coriander leaves (cilantro)
- Spring onions, chopped
- Chicken meat, shredded

Dressing (Good for 4 servings) :
- 2 big cloves garlic (pounded)
- 1/2 inch ginger (pounded)
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 3 tablespoons bean paste (taucheow)
- 1 tablespoon dark soya sauce
- 1 teaspoon plum sauce
- 200ml rice vinegar
- 100ml water

Additional ingredients for salad dressing :
- Sesame oil
- Grapeseed oil or any neutral tasting oil

For garnishing :
- toasted sesame seeds.

To make dressing :
- Pound garlic and ginger (or run through garlic press)
- In a saucepan add garlic, ginger, honey, bean paste, dark soya sauce, plum sauce, vinegar and water.
- Bring the dressing to a boil and lower heat to simmer for 10-15 minutes until marinade is slightly thick.
- Take it off the heat and cool.

To serve :
- Put salad ingredients into a mixing bowl.
- In another bowl, mix 2 tablespoons of dressing with 2 tablespoons of grapeseed oil (or any neutral tasting oil) and 1 teaspoon sesame oil.
- Pour dressing into salad ingredients and toss to mix well.
- Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds.