No picture of this one, as it was thrown together at the last minute and rushed to the dinner table. But the stock photo gives you an idea of some ingredients, and you can use whatever you have on hand. It was my turn to make dinner last night (my mother-in-law and I trade off, very informally–how I suffer!), and I wanted to use up some stuff I had on hand–cucumbers, spinach and peanut salad dressing–and I’d taken some chicken out of the freezer. We’d had a lovely Memorial Day dinner Monday that featured the Korean marinated grilled steak from Half Baked Harvest (one of only four cooking blogs to which I actually subscribe), and I had some marinade left over.So I put the marinade in my nonstick skillet with some extra oil, heated it up, then threw the trimmed and halved boneless chicken thighs in, let them cook on each side for several minutes, took them out, sliced them thinly, and put them back in the pan to finish cooking and coat thoroughly with sauce. (It was easier to slice the meat after it was partly cooked.) I grated up some carrots, thinly sliced some red onion, and sliced a couple of small cucumbers, putting that mixture in a bowl. I chopped some roasted peanuts and mixed them with some chow mein noodles, putting that in another bowl. The third bowl was full of the nice warm chicken, and washed and spun spinach and romaine made up the greens. Everyone could then assemble his/her own version, adding dressing to taste. If I’d had scallions I’d have used those instead of the red onions. Raw or steamed broccoli, blanched green beans, endamame, or any other veggie you like would be great. Here’s the recipe for the dressing, but since the point of this post is that you can use what you have, take a quick look at your own fridge shelves and see what you think will work. There are no rules!
Peanut-Lime Salad Dressing
My take on a popular dressing that's great on a main-dish salad with chicken. This particular version is adapted from the website Once Upon a Chef. I've upped the Soy Sauce and nixed the sugar and salt; I don't see any reason to have honey and sugar or salt and soy sauce.
- 1/4 cup creamy or crunchy peanut butter
- 2 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar
- 2 tablespoons lime juice (or more to taste)
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil (peanut would work well!)
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 garlic cloves (roughly chopped)
- 1- inch piece fresh ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 2 tablespoons fresh cilantro leaves
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Add all ingredients except for cilantro to a blender, small bowl of food processor, or a container that will accommodate a stick blender. (If you use the latter you can make the dressing in its own storage container and not dirty up the blender or processor bowl.) Process until smooth.
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Add cilantro and process briefly.
A Quick, Fresh, Healthy Dinner
