This version of Chinese chicken salad includes the shredded chicken, wonton crisps, and slivered almonds seen in the salad’s earliest days, with the oranges and a peanut and sesame dressing that became a popular addition in the 1980s. This basic chicken salad formula lends itself to many variations. For the slivered almonds you could substitute dry-roasted peanuts, chopped cashews, or sesame seeds. You could add julienned cucumbers or snow peas. Finally, for even faster salad prep, you could use leftover roast chicken and skip step 1. However you toss together your salad, rest assured you’re fixing up a dish that has been adapted many times through the decades.
½ tablespoon peanut or vegetable oil
½ pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, or substitute 2 cups leftover cooked chicken
4 seedless clementines or tangerines
dressing
¼ cup peanut or vegetable oil
¼ cup cider vinegar
3 tablespoons smooth peanut butter
2 tablespoons soy sauce
½ tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 garlic clove, minced
½ teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
8 ounces romaine lettuce, chopped
1 large carrot, julienned
¼ cup slivered almonds
1. Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add the peanut oil and swirl to coat the bottom of the pan. Sear the chicken breasts for about 4 minutes on each side, or until the outside starts to turn golden brown. Cut open a breast to check for doneness; the juices should run clear. Remove from the heat and allow the chicken to cool on a plate while you prepare the other ingredients.
2. Peel the clementines, separate into segments, and remove the white membranes (pith).
3. Prepare the dressing: In a medium bowl, combine the peanut oil, cider vinegar, peanut butter, soy sauce, honey, sesame oil, garlic, ginger, salt, and pepper. Whisk until smooth and set aside.
4. Once the chicken breasts have cooled, shred them into bite-size pieces. In a large bowl, toss together the shredded chicken, clementines, romaine, carrots, and almonds.
5. Drizzle the dressing on top of the salad. Garnish with crispy chow mein or wonton toppings and serve.
A Chinese salad, California style
Chinese Chicken Salad is a dish that has the Southern California imprint branded in every bowl. Which other regions of the country could have created an entire meal out of the chicken breast, lettuce, and a light sesame-accented dressing, with crispy wontons or chow mein noodles thrown in for good measure? Surely it had to come from a place with a healthy appetite for salads and enough culinary caché to popularize this dish by word of mouth.
Chinese Chicken Salad is a dish that has the Southern California imprint branded in every bowl. Which other regions of the country could have created an entire meal out of the chicken breast, lettuce, and a light sesame-accented dressing, with crispy wontons or chow mein noodles thrown in for good measure? Surely it had to come from a place with a healthy appetite for salads and enough culinary caché to popularize this dish by word of mouth.
The debate over who the mastermind behind the Chinese chicken salad was raged on in Los Angeles. Sylvia Wu, who owned the now-closed Madame Wu’s Garden, claims to have created the salad for Cary Grant in the 1960s after he came to her restaurant rhapsodizing about a great chicken salad he had eaten elsewhere. As the story went, she put a chicken salad with almond slivers and wonton crisps on her menu and continued to tweak it for him over time. Others give the credit to Madame Wong, who not only owned two Chinese restaurants that moonlighted as rock clubs and Hollywood hangouts but also taught Chinese cooking to such stars as Debbie Reynolds and Barbra Streisand. Meanwhile, recipes for similar salads also appeared in Sunset magazine as far back as 1957, and in Chinese food manufacturer La Choy’s recipe booklets in the 1940s. The debate will surely continue.
The popularity of Chinese chicken salad surged in the 1980s when celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck put it on the menu at his restaurant Chinois on Main in Santa Monica, California. These days, it’s hard to visit a chain restaurant, such as California Pizza Kitchen or The Cheesecake Factory, without finding Chinese chicken salad on the menu. And many Chinese restaurants in and around L.A. still proudly advertise and serve the salad, a Chinese-Californian hodgepodge that became popular around the country.
This refreshing cucumber salad is a Sichuan restaurant staple. It’s a crisp, refreshing appetizer as well as an effective palate cleanser between bites of fiery Mapo Tofu or Spicy Garlic Eggplant, in chili oil. Pounding the cucumber slices with a blunt object makes them release more water, thereby becoming firmer and absorbing more flavor. The salad is easy to prepare, but the result tastes more complex than you might expect. The crisp, slick cucumbers are at once garlicky, vinegary, savory, spicy, and sweet, with a noticeable scent of sesame. Consider them delicious instant pickles.
1 large cucumber or 2 medium cucumbers, unpeeled
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon peanut or vegetable oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 teaspoons cider vinegar
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon sugar
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1. Cut the cucumbers into quarters lengthwise. Slice or scoop out the seedy middle sections then cut each quarter in half again. Cut the halves into smaller pieces about 1½ inches long.
2. Crush the cucumber slices by pounding them once or twice with a kitchen mallet, the blunt edge of a cleaver, or the bottom of a coffee mug. The cucumber might spray some juice, so have paper towels handy.
3. In a large bowl, toss the cucumbers with salt and let sit for 20 minutes, allowing the salt to draw out excess moisture from the cucumbers.
4. Heat the peanut oil in a small skillet on medium-low heat. Add the garlic and gently cook until fragrant, 30 to 40 seconds, being careful not to let the garlic burn. Remove from the heat, transfer to a small bowl, and toss with the cider vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, and red pepper flakes.
5. Drain the cucumbers and get rid of any remaining excess moisture by squeezing the cucumbers in the palms of your hands. Toss with the cider vinegar mixture. Transfer to a plate and serve at room temperature, or chill in the fridge until ready to serve. The salad will keep for up to 3 to 4 days in the fridge.
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