Chicken Salad - Round 2

I love things that are rolled up or stuffed. Or both!

I'd been planning on making a chicken salad (cold dinner, too hot to cook) with Asian flavours all week... and then I started getting cravings for Sriracha. (which I, and others apparently, like to call "cock sauce" thanks to the lovely rooster on the bottle)

I knew what I had to do.

I know most people unfailingly put mayo in chicken salad no matter what other flavours are going in, but not me. And not just because my mayo had been in the fridge so long it had expired.

I've been making various versions of a peanut butter and sesame based salad dressing for a while now, and that's how this salad stays together. It's basically a vinaigrette, but with peanut butter as an emulsifier. Watch, you'll see.

Chicken Salad Rolls

The Dressing:

• 1/4 c peanut butter
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 2 tbsp lime or lemon juice
• 2 tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 tsp fish sauce
• 1 tsp ginger
• 1 clove garlic
• sriracha to taste
• peanut oil

The "vinegar" part of this dressing can be replaced partially or entirely by citrus juice. My ideal is a combination of lime and vinegar, but all I had when I made the salad was lemon, so that's what I used.

In a bowl, combine the peanut butter, juice and / or vinegar, fish sauce, ginger, and garlic.

A microplane grater (or citrus zester) is the ideal thing for ginger.

If you can't find fish sauce, or if you're kinda scared of it (lots of people are, it's okay to admit it, and admitting your fear is the first step to overcoming it) you are free to leave it out, but it really is what's missing in all the home made Asian food that never quite tastes the way it does in the restaurant...

Whisk together the stuff in the bowl, and keep whisking as you drizzle in the peanut oil.

Drizzle until you have a slightly thicker than usual salad dressing.

Use a bit of carrot or rice wrapper to taste it. Mine needed a bit more sour, so I squeezed in another tbsp or so of lemon juice.

If you want to put this onto a green salad, I'd suggest doubling the oil and vinegar amounts. What you have here should be pretty thick.

The Salad:

• 2 c cooked chicken
• 2 carrots
• a few radishes (daikon, if you can find it)
• 1/2 c cashews
• 1/2 c cilantro
• 1/2 c basil
• 2 green onions

Yes, there is a pretty high veggie and herb content in this salad. Damn tasty, and makes for a full meal. I couldn't find decent bean sprouts, but some of those would be nice in this if you have them.

Start with the nuts.

Toast the cashews in a dry pan over medium heat. Shake them around in the pan until parts of them start to turn golden. You should also be able to smell them.

Next, the sesame seeds... yes, I know they're listed in the next batch of ingredients, but they're in the pic in this section so toast them now while you have an already hot pan.

Dice all your veggies to about the same size, chop the chicken, and chiffonade your basil.

Thow it all into a bowl, mix it, pour the dressing over top, and mix again. Or just mix once. Up to you.

Now, at this point, you have a perfectly viable chicken salad. You could eat it as is for lunch or dinner. You could serve it with some fried rice (I haven't made fried rice yet, have I? I need to do that soon) or some noodles. You could roll it up in lettuce like I did with the last chicken salad.

Or you could roll it up in rice wrappers.

Have I mentioned that I love food that is rolled up and stuffed?

The Rolls:

• rice wrappers
• sesame seeds
• sriracha

Now, you've already toasted your sesame seeds, so we've got that covered.

Next is the rice wrappers. If you've ever had Vientamese "salad rolls" you know what I'm talking about. Rice wrappers are these lovely stretchy things that you can wrap around all kinds of fresh food to make a hand held salad.

They're a really fun ingredient to play with, and though they look delicate, they are fairly resilient and can stretch quite a bit.

The set up: you need rice wrappers, a dish of water (pie plate works), a plate to work on, and a plate for your finished product. Hmm... I didn't seem to take a pic of the set up, but this is almost everything...

What you see on the plate there is a dry rice wrapper. They start out crispy, but with a little moisture will soften quite nicely.

Dip the wrapper into the water in the pie plate. All you need to do is get it wet, but you need to get all of it wet.

Lay the moistened wrapper on the working plate, and wait about 15 seconds. It will suddenly be flexible and extremely pliable.

Put a small-ish amount of chicken salad in the middle of the wrapper. Too little and you won't get a nice proportional roll, too much and, though it will roll up, the filling will fall out when you try to eat it.

You're going to roll this up just like you would a burrito. Start by folding the edge closest to you over the filling.

Then, fold each of the sides in.

Then, lift the filling and roll it away from you until you have a perfectly stuffed, beautifully rolled, chicken salad.

Sprinkle the rolls with the toasted sesame seeds. If you don't want to dip your rolls directly into hot chili sauce (Taneasha now understands why she keeps seeing me chop jalapenos with bare hands; relatively high tolerance for capsaicin), you can make another batch of salad dressing, or a bit of hoisin instead.

One thing to note about rice wrappers: they will dry out in the fridge if you have leftovers. They won't revert back to their original dry state or anything, but they will lose their stretch and pliability, and are much more likely to fall apart. 

To prevent them from drying out too much, roll each roll in a dampened paper towel before you put it in a container. Even if they do start to lose their structural integrity, you can just tear the wrapper into pieces, dump it all into a bowl and eat it with a fork.

What kind of rolled up or stuffed food do you like?

I Want My Baby Back Baby Back Baby Back

Living in Utah my whole life, I always thought 100° was 100° and those people whining about humidity making it worse were just a bunch of pansies.  Well… I was wrong.  I get it now.  In Utah when it gets over 100 the sun literally feels like it’s baking you.  Here, it feels like you’ve just walked into the sauna from hell, even in the middle of the night.  You can’t breathe, and the sweat… seriously?  I never used to sweat, but here it’s just the default way of being.  All that in mind, you’ll understand why I not only don’t want to use my oven or boil anything on the stove, but I don’t even want to use my electric skillet because it creates too much steam.  I was tired of sandwiches, salads, and eating out.  I wanted a proper, home cooked meal, so I did the only thing I could think of.  I bought a slow cooker.  What could be a better way to break it in than baby back ribs and potatoes?  As a bonus, it was the easiest meal I’ve made in a long time, and amazingly delicious.  Hubby gave it two thumbs up. 

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 1 rack of baby backs
• 1 onion
• 3 good sized potatoes
• 5 cloves of garlic
• Celery salt
• Salt & Pepper
• Your favorite spice mix
• 1 lemon

Peel your onion, cut it in half, and slice it about ½ inch thick.

Line the bottom of your crock pot with onion slices.

Lay out your ribs.  Well, not your ribs.  You'll be needing them.     

Sprinkle with liberal amounts of all the spices. 

Turn the rack over and repeat. 

I know a lot of people only season the one side, but seasoning the underside serves multiple purposes here.  Not only will it add flavor to the meat, but everything else in the pot as well. 

Lay the ribs around the edges of the pot with the curved side facing in to form a little bowl.  (I know, sometimes I even surprise myself with my genius.)

Drop in any remaining slices of onion, along with whole, peeled garlic cloves. 

Now, onto the potatoes.  Since they’re not going to be submerged, they need something to keep them from oxidizing.  Juice a lemon and add enough water to total ¾ cup liquid. 

As you dice the potatoes, pour the liquid over the top and sprinkle on 1 teaspoon salt. 

Continue to toss the potatoes in the lemon water as you chop.  If you have any cuts on your fingers, I don’t recommend doing this with your hands.  I learned the hard way.  If you have any cuts or scrapes on your hands you aren’t aware of, you will be the moment you plunge them into lemon and salt water.  When you’ve recovered, pour the potatoes, along with the liquid into the bowl-o-ribs. 

Now, just pop the lid on and cook on low for 6 hours.  Seriously, that’s all you have to do.  When you come back 6 hours later, your house will smell like you’ve slaved all day. 

You probably won’t be able to get the whole rack out in one piece, because it’s literally fall apart tender.  Saves the hassle of having to cut it, right?  Just put down a bed of potato, onion mixture and lay the ribs on top.  You aren’t going to believe how good these are. 

What else should I make in my new slow cooker? 

*Any leftover potatoes and onions can be blended into the remaining liquid making a fabulous potato soup bonus.