Oriental Chicken Salad

Recently I have been trying to use up items that I have in my pantry and freezer as both are quite full and in need of a clean out.  To that end, I have tried to only purchase fresh veggies and milk each week.  Since I really don’t pre-plan our meals, I get what veggies look good and are at a good price and I work around that with the items available in my pantry and freezer.  In my refrigerator from my last shopping trip I had two large containers of mini red, yellow & orange sweet peppers, a bag of tri-color coleslaw mix and my ever present supply of cilantro & green onion so I knew that I wanted to work with those.  In addition, in the freezer I had a package of breast meat left over from a rotisserie chicken, so it worked out perfectly when I found this recipe for Asian Chicken Salad on Dianna’s Double Batch blog.  As it turned out, I had every ingredient needed to make my adaptation of her recipe…aren’t adaptations wonderful!

We really enjoyed this salad, it was quick to make and very fresh and summery tasting so a perfect recipe to make and enjoy after a long afternoon at the pool. 

 

Oriental Chicken Salad (Adapted from here)

For the salad:

2 packages (3 ounces each) ramen noodle mix, Oriental flavor, flavor packet set aside for dressing
½ cup sliced almonds
1 package (16 ounces) tri-color coleslaw mix
2 cups shredded cooked chicken breast
1 large bunch fresh cilantro, chopped
6 green onions, whites & green, chopped
3-4 each, mini red, orange & yellow sweet peppers, cut in long strips
vinaigrette dressing (recipe below)

Heat oven to 350 F.  Break up the ramen noodles and place them and the almonds on a baking sheet.  Bake for about 6 minutes, or until the noodles and almonds turn light brown.

Place slaw mix, chicken, cilantro, green onions & sliced peppers in a large serving bowl.  Toss to combine.

Just before serving, pour the dressing over the salad and toss to coat.  Scatter the toasted almonds and noodles on top and serve.

Vinaigrette dressing:

1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 1/2 TBS fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons honey
Freshly ground black pepper
1 reserved flavor packet from the ramen noodles
1/2 cup olive oil

Mix the vinegar, lemon juice, honey, pepper and one of the reserved flavor packets from the noodles in a blender.  Once combined, with the blender running, gradually blend in the oil.

Enjoy!

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