Dueling to the Death: Shredded Crispy Everything Salad

With grocery trips being few and far between lately, it’s pretty much guaranteed that I go overboard on the fresh vegetables whenever I make a trip. Predictably, about a week or so afterwards we find that we need to eat a lot of veg pretty quickly, and main dish salads start to make an appearance on our table. Don’t get me wrong – we love our salads and they’re not a meal of last resort. It’s just that I go from trying to stretch out the fresh stuff for as long as possible, in which case a salad feels positively profligate, to – well….this.

If I were handing out food awards, this would be a serious contender for Most Unrecognizable Use of Leftovers From Multiple Meals. It could also be a runner-up in the Type of Dressing That You Usually Hate is Actually Delicious and Unhealthiest Transformation of a Lean Protein categories. I imagine it would be even more enjoyable if I had all the ingredients on hand, but I find that I’m becoming a lot more comfortable with substitutions and swaps these days; I’ve even started to – gasp! – improvise recipes, which is Not At All My Thing. The evolution of the cook continues.

My son attacked my daughter with tongs after she took a larger-than-he-deemed-appropriate second serving, and she dumped dressing into her bowl so he wouldn’t want to eat it (he hates all dressings). Evidently she thought it was good enough to go up against a newly-minted brown belt in karate which, as recommendations go, pretty much says it all.

This is adapted very slightly with my own editorial comments from Seriously Good Salads by Nicky Corbishly, one of my favorite cookbooks from last summer. The author recommends using a mandoline for the slicing/shredding, but my chef’s knife did just fine and meant less dishwashing.

Crispy Chicken Shredded Salad with Honey Mustard Dressing

CHICKEN
¼ cup vegetable oil
2 cups shredded cooked chicken (I used turkey)
3 Tbsp cornstarch
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp garlic salt
¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
½ tsp paprika

DRESSING¼ cup olive oil
2 tsp white wine vinegar
3 Tbsp honey
2 tsp Dijon mustard
Pinch of salt and pepper, or to taste

SALAD 2 heads romaine lettuce, shredded
¼ cup red cabbage, sliced into thin strips (one of the things I didn’t have, but feel free to throw in whatever bits of greens you have around)
2 carrots, peeled and sliced into thin strips
1 cucumber, sliced into thin strips (I used celery)
1 red bell pepper, sliced into thin strips
1 sweet apple, slice into thin strips
3 radishes, quartered and thinly sliced
4 scallions, sliced

Toss the chicken with the cornstarch, salt, garlic salt, pepper, and paprika and toss to coat evenly.

Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet over high heat. Add half the chicken and cook until golden brown and crispy, about 4-5 minutes. Remove to a bowl lined with paper towels and repeat with the other half of the chicken.

While the chicken cooks, stir together the dressing ingredients.

Toss together the romaine, vegetables, and apple.

Top each serving of the vegetable mix with the crispy chicken and some sliced green onions, then toss with the dressing.