Main Course Salads: Chinese Chicken Noodle Salad

Last year, I discovered the wonder of noodles in a salad when I made Soba Salad. I love it so much that we ate lots of it. If I didn't eventually ran out of soba in the house, I would still be eating it. Now Hubby keeps his stash of dried soba noodles in a secret place which he will take out to make supper for himself when princess and I have gone to dream land.

This year, I thought that the Vietnamese Rice Noodle Salad would be the noodle salad of the year. Unfortunately, I didn't make it again after that post. Perhaps I wasn't overly fond of cleaning up the stove after grilling/pan-frying the pork. Don't get me wrong that the Vietnamese Rice Noodle Salad is not worth  the trouble, in my books, good food is always worth the trouble. Just that on these hot summer days, I need more than enthusiasm to get me through the cooking whole process, including cleaning up.

And then I made this.

We roasted two chicken last weekend and still had leftovers. I can't begin to tell you how many uses of leftover roast chicken are there. But I will save that for another post when I can finally list down all the wonderful meals you can make from a single roast chicken.

Instead of Chinese noodles, I cheated with angel hair pasta. I didn't regret it. Once out of the pot, I had it tossed with some dressing and the noodles took on a glossy and slurp-able nature. Perhaps this is a better choice than conventional eggy Chinese noodles?

As always, what goes into my salad are whatever that I have in my fridge at that moment. My salad mix here include bibb lettuce, shredded carrots, halved grape tomatoes, cilantro and spring onions. I've see Napa cabbage, snow peas, bell peppers and even bean sprouts being added to the mix, but I am quite happy with my mix as it is.

And one more thing: NO PEANUTS! I can't phantom why there will always be peanuts in Asian-style salads. We, Asians, are not some kind of monkey and we can live happily without one of the worst tasting legumes ever existed. Don't take my word for it, go Google Images and punch in "Thai Beef Salad" or "Vietnamese Shrimp Salad" and see the results for yourself.

This huge plate of the salad took care of our lunch and dinner for the day. Now that's what gastronomy economy is all about.


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Dressing for Chinese Chicken Noodle Salad
(adapted from Cook's Illustrated Cookbook)
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1/3 cup rice vinegar
3 tbsp oyster sauce
1 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp grated ginger
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp sesame oil
Chili flakes


Combine everything in a bottle and shake.