Spicy Chopped Chicken Salad

The precise nature of your salad mixture is more art than a science!

This family favourite is one of those recipes that you make a couple of times and then have fun adjusting the ingredients according to your particular taste. 

Combining crispness and tastiness with a bit of chili heat, it provides a light meal that's full of goodness. Chopped chicken salad is very low-carb, even with the drop of honey, and for those of you counting calories - it does well on that score too! 

But let's focus on the reason you are choosing to make it: 'tastes simply stunning!'

​(Please be aware that this low-carb dish contains peanuts and that some people are highly allergic: you can replace them with cashews or pine nuts if preferred.)

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Directions
        Mix together the vinegar, honey, sesame oil, oil mixture, juice of half a lime and soy sauce. Add in the chopped ginger, garlic, chopped chili pepper and spring onions  and let marinate for 15 minutes or longer.
        Meanwhile, wash and chop the lettuce and Chinese cabbage and place in your serving bowl; add the finely sliced carrots and add in the par-boiled and cooled snow peas/mange-tout... they add yet more taste and crunch but are non-essential. (I sometimes add a small handful of soy sprouts too.)
        Then you mix the sauce well with the salad ingredients and garnish with chopped cooked chicken - I use left-overs after a roast meal and it works wonderfully - roasted peanuts, fresh coriander, mint and sesame seeds.

Ingredients

• 30 ml rice vinegar (or use apple vinegar for more taste)
• 60 ml cold-pressed rapeseed, avocado, or olive oil (I use a blend)
• 1 tablespoon of honey (or less)
• 1 tablespoon of soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon of sesame oil (or another flavoured nut oil)
• Juice of 1/2 a lemon or lime (I prefer lime, lemon works too)
• 25 gm Chopped spring onions
• 1 tablespoon of finely chopped ginger
• 1/2 tablespoon of chopped green chili (to taste)
• 1/2 tablespoon of finely chopped garlic

• 1 Romaine(Cos) lettuce
• 1/2  head of chinese (Napa) cabbage
• 100 gm snow peas (par-boiled and still crisp)
• 50 gm finely chopped raw carrot
• Chopped roasted peanuts to taste
• 50 gm of fresh mixed coriander and mint 
• Salt and fresh pepper
• 250 gm chopped cooked chicken (I poach chicken breast and thighs for 20 minutes in lightly salted water, then reduce and use as chicken stock)

Prepare all the ingredients and add dressing just before serving.