Bang bang chicken salad
This salad is one of the dishes that I adore preparing for my family — it is light, fresh and crunchy, easy and quick to prepare — and it is a great way to use up leftover chicken.
Serves 4
1⁄4 iceberg lettuce, sliced into thin strips 100g shredded savoy or Chinese cabbage 100g bean sprouts
1 carrot, peeled and sliced into matchsticks
1⁄2 telegraph cucumber, sliced in half lengthways then sliced into strips 250g cooked chicken meat, shredded or
pulled handful fresh mint leaves handful fresh coriander leaves
2 stalks spring onions, thinly sliced
2 large eggs, semihardboiled and peeled
1⁄4 cup of chopped roasted peanuts
Optional large handful perilla or Vietnamese lettuce
Bang bang peanut sauce
2 Tbsp peanut oil
12 tsp sambal olek or chilli paste 3 heaped Tbsp chunky peanut butter 2 Tbsp dark soy sauce
2 Tbsp Chinese black vinegar (or
balsamic vinegar)
2 Tbsp caster sugar
2 Tbsp cold water salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper
Method
To make the sauce, whisk together the oil, chilli paste to fit your heat threshold, peanut butter, soy, vinegar, sugar and water and season with salt and pepper to taste. The sauce should be able to dribble off a spoon. If it’s too thick, add a tablespoon of water at a time, whisking until you reach the desired saucelike consistency.
On a large platter, begin to assemble your salad, starting with the lettuce, cabbage and bean sprouts. Add the carrot, cucumber and perilla lettuce, followed by the shredded chicken, mint, and coriander. Top with the spring onion and eggs that have been cut into quarters.
Drizzle the sauce generously over the salad and finish with a sprinkling of salt and pepper and a smattering of peanuts. Consume immediately.
If you are taking this salad to work or on a picnic, keep the vegetables fresh and separate from the sauce, dressing the salad only just before serving.
Tips: This dish got its name thanks to the sound the mallets would make when the tough chicken meat was being belted into delicate submission. A traditional Chinese dish that involved tenderised chicken meat with its flavoursome juices and lots of searinghot Sichuan chillies, you are not required to bang your chicken meat — the chicken available to us today is a lot more tender than the broiler fowls of old.