If, like me, vinaigrette is your least favorite salad dressing, you will love the thick creaminess of the peanut dressing in this salad. It’s a version of the peanut sauce that often accompanies satay.
Cook’s notes
But it isn’t just chicken and cabbage that go into this one bowl meal. There’s lettuce, bell pepper, beans, roasted cashew nuts and sliced peaches. So you can just imagine the interplay of flavors and textures in this dish.
Now, about substutitions. If you have fresh ripe and very sweet mangoes, choose them over canned peaches.
Just cut open the mangoes, score to create thin strips then scoop out with a spoon or the mouth of a drinking glass.
The black-eyed beans can be substituted with any kind of beans. Butter beans, pinto beans or kidney beans will work just fine.
Just cut open the mangoes, score to create thin strips then scoop out with a spoon or the mouth of a drinking glass.
The black-eyed beans can be substituted with any kind of beans. Butter beans, pinto beans or kidney beans will work just fine.Fried chicken and red cabbage salad with peanut dressing
Ingredients
Peanut dressing
- ¼ cup smooth unsweetened peanut butter
- ½ teaspoon grated ginger
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon honey
- fish sauce to taste
Fried chicken
- 1 chicken thigh fillet
- salt
- pepper
- 1 tablespoon rice wine
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- cooking oil for deep frying
Salad
- ½ cup thinly sliced red cabbage
- ½ cup thinly sliced Romaine lettuce
- 1 small red bell pepper thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons black-eyed beans tossed with a pinch of salt
- 2 tablespoons roasted cashew nuts
- sliced peaches (or mangoes), as many as you like
Instructions
Make the peanut dressing
- In a bowl, stir together the peanut butter, grated ginger, rice vinegar and honey.
- Add water, a tablespoon at a time, until the mixture is pourable but still thick.
- Mix in enough fish sauce to create your preferred flavor balance.
Fry the chicken
- With the knife held at a 45-degree angle, cut the chicken fillet into six slices about a quarter of an inch thick.
- Place the chicken in a bowl and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper.
- Pour in the rice wine. Mix.
- Add the cornstarch and mix again.
- Heat enough cooking oil to reach a depth of one inch.
- Fry the chicken slices until browned and crisp, about two minutes per side.
- Drain and set aside to cool a bit.
Assemble the salad
- In a large bowl, toss together the red cabbage, Romaine lettuce, bell pepper, beans, nuts and peaches.
- Add the chicken and toss again.
- Pile the salad in a bowl.
- Drizzle peanut dressing generously over the salad.
Chicken katsu