Chinese Chicken Salad

I made a Chinese Chicken Salad for Boat Club last week, and meant to post this a few days ago, but Real Life has a way of rearing its head sometimes and tripping me up.

And Tapas Night was just the other day as well.

I swear the older I get the faster time flies and sometimes I have trouble catching it, well, most of the time I have trouble catching it.

At any rate, I did make a yummy salad, and I want to share how I did it with you.

To start with, I used Ina Garten's little trick for cooking the chicken.  Although, if you have a rotisserie chicken, use that, but I didn't and I wanted to make this with chicken breasts so I did this.  Ina showed how to bake chicken for dishes such as this, by baking them in the oven.  I used to poach breasts, but you know they got kinda 'dry' and really, the flavour wasn't all that great either.  Boneless, skinless breasts are actually moist and tasty now.

Place your chicken breasts (you can use other parts of the chicken if you want) on a greased rimmed baking pan.
Brush the chicken breasts with olive oil, or just do what I do, drizzle on a little olive oil, season accordingly, and place in the oven for about 20 minutes or so, until the internal temperature reaches 160 deg.

Take them out of the oven, let cool and cut them up however you want.

Simple, and good.   Since Ina shared that little secret, I no longer make 'dry as dust' and tasteless boneless skinless chicken breasts.     I make up a bunch like this when they are on sale, and always try to have some cooked chicken in the freezer, comes in so handy, in so many recipes.

Ideally you should use a Napa Cabbage in this salad, but the ones in the store the other day looked too tired to use.  So I grabbed a Savoy cabbage and just cored it and sliced it very thinly.   Savoy cabbage is somewhere in between Napa and regular green cabbage in flavour.

Added some sliced Water Chestnuts for crunch as well as a bunch of green onions, sliced up and then to top it off, I added a can of Bamboo Shoots, totally optional, but good.  I've also added fresh bean sprouts to this when I've made it in the past.    Crumbled up a package of Ramen Noodles, (uncooked), and then dressed it with an awesome dressing.  Recipe just below. 
And I almost forgot, I chopped up some almonds at the last minute and threw it in there.  As well as the chicken, I figured I should mention adding the chicken at least once.

I made a nice dressing using some of the Ken's Asian Sesame dressing as well as some of this Cape Cod Toasted Sesame dressing,  I tried to replicate the Soy Vay Chinese Chicken Salad dressing I used to buy.
  I added lots of toasted Sesame Seeds as well as some Sesame Seed oil, and then also added just a teaspoon of sugar, it needed it.  And it was very good.

1/4 cup Ken's Asian Sesame with Ginger and Soy
1/4 cup Cape Cod Toasted Sesame dressing
1 teaspoon of toasted Sesame Seeds
1 teaspoon of Sesame Seed Oil
1 teaspoon sugar
mix together and pour over the salad and let sit for about a half hour so that the flavours can get to know each other, they get along much better that way.

Toss together and enjoy.

And by the way, there was a little left at the end of the night, so I took it home, and heated it for breakfast the next day.  It actually tasted pretty darn good.  hmmmm, I think I have an idea...

Tapas for January

Another month, another Tapas Night.  
I had to laugh last night, as I was frantically elbowing people out of the way so I could take pictures, (just kidding on that one), one of my guests said "Oh good, hurry up and take a picture so we can eat".  As I said, I had to laugh, but then I started to wonder, if people were being polite and waiting for me to document their contribution before digging in.   And I so hope not, the whole point of Tapas Night is to get together and enjoy each others company.   

Which I did, I ended up visiting with so many people, and having so many interesting conversations, I barely got to taste a lot of the food.  

So I had to enjoy, in retrospect, with my eyes only.  sigh...

The first few are my things, I kinda got, oh, somewhat carried away this month...

 Pine Nut and Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms, one of my contributions, the recipe will be posted, soon.

 No-Knead bread, I think it is official, I'm addicted to this stuff

 Bacon wrapped Water Chestnuts with Sweet n' Sour Barbeque Sauce,  the recipe will get posted, soon.

 Brie Log and Pear Apple slices, I visited Trader Joe's the other day and kinda, sorta got carried away.

 Tri Tip from Trader Joe's with an awesome Horseradish Sauce, which I will share at a later date.

 Tomato Florentine Soup, killer soup.  I've had this one in the past.

 A nice assortment of nuts...

 Quiche, which by the time I got back to the table, was gone. But I heard it was good.

 Fruit topped Tart, I did manage to snag a taste and it was yummy. 

 I didn't taste these, but they looked good.  I think they were a veggie patty.

 Spinach Maria, and if you've never had this before, OMG, I have the recipe here for it. 

 I didn't get to taste this, but it looked so pretty and judging from the empty dish at the end of the night it was good. 

 Chocolate Lasagna.   I managed to get a small piece cut and set aside for me for later, but it disappeared.  Reports are it was deadly good.  Rich and yummy.

 Garam Masala Chickpeas, very tasty and different.

 In the front, cheese and crackers and in the back a nice spicy dip with chips. 

 I believe this was an Artichoke Spinach dip, I didn't get a chance to taste it however,  In the back there is a Pimento cheese spread and crackers.

 This is the table with some of the various offerings.

 Carrot sticks and dip, perfection.

 Pimento Cheese and crackers

 Mine Spinach Quiches, I was told they were good.  

 Pretzels and dip

 Salad, it looked lovely.

 Killer Beans, actually curried beans and very good.  I snuck some out and put it in the fridge for later. 

 Salmon Croquettes, I noticed they disappeared fast.

 Fish Dips, something I'd never had til I moved to this area, but now love. 

And last but not least, a nice twist on pigs in a blanket, with a lovely mustard sauce on top.


But best of all, really, the guests.  I enjoy them every month and look forward to seeing them and talking with them.  

Boat Club for January

The first Boat Club gathering of this year was overwhelming, almost, but not quite, in the amount of dishes that were brought and shared.
Honestly, I couldn't taste everything, but I tried.    And everything I tasted was very good. 

I get blown away every month by the sheer skill of the cooks and variety of the food brought.    Let me share...

And please note, if I missed any dishes, I'm sorry, please forgive me.   And I do try to take clear pictures, but don't always succeed...

We had... 
Appetizers, 

 Deviled Eggs, one of those dishes that always gets eaten. 

 Pimento Cheese.  A southern kind of thing, and something I need to learn how to make.  

 Egg rolls.  Cute aren't they?  and in the background, some cashews. 

 Smoked salmon with a little sour cream on top, served on little potato crisps.  (alright so they're known as potato chips).     What a cool idea. 

Can't miss with little chicken nuggets dipped in a buffalo sauce.












Side Dishes and Salads

This incredible salad.  Very tasty. 

 I made a Chinese Chicken Salad, the recipe for which I will share later on. 

 A pasta cheese bake.  And you know me, I saw Pasta! and had to try it.  And it was worth it.

 This was a very interesting dish.  A selection of vegetables in a curry sauce.  I have no idea who brought it, but OMG, was it good.   Of course I love curry, so I was sucker for this one.










This is how they make green beans in the south.  Lots of ham, potatoes and flavour.    I have to say, if I had known you could dress up vegetables with ham, I think I would have eaten more veggies growing up. Just kidding.  But really, it does dress up a plain vegetable. 

 Look at this gorgeous salad.   And it was good.  Salads are a good thing. 











Breads

I made a loaf of my No-Knead bread.  Which I practice making at least 3 times a week.  

 Corn bread, which by the way goes very well with the green bean dish.   Just saying.

I believe this is what is known as spoon bread, but I didn't get a chance to try it.  Again, this would go very well with the Green bean dish. 










to entree's,

 Look at this.  There was a whole big dish of Quail.   I mean how often do you see that at a potluck?   And you know I snagged one.   It's been a long time since I've had quail.   

BBQ chicken wings, and they were good as well. 















And finally, Dessert.  

A lovely pumpkin pie.   And there was whipped topping to go on top. 












All I can say is this, a person needs to go into training to attend one of our events.


Just kidding.