Asian Salad Recipe
Hi there polly Amanda (amandajane) here with a beautiful summer recipe for you today. After living and travelling in South East Asia, I love the freshness and flavours of Asian food. When I saw this recipe on Jamie’s 15 minute meals, I knew I wanted to try it and the best thing is that I had almost everything I needed already in the fridge or pantry.
So here is the recipe for Jamie Oliver’s Sticky Kickin’ Chicken and watermelon noodle salad.
• 200g thin rice noodles sesame oil
• 800g watermelon
• 2 little romaine lettuces
• 1 handful of radishes
• Half a bunch of fresh mint
• Half a bunch of fresh coriander (cilantro)
• 8 skinless, boneless chicken thighs
• 1 tbsp Chinese five-spice
• olive oil
• 2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
• 2 tbsp sesame seeds
• Dressing
• 2 tbsp low-salt soy sauce
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• Half a fresh red chilli
• Half a thumb-sized piece of ginger
• 2 spring onions
• 2 limes
• 1 small clove of garlic
In a bowl, fully submerge the noodles in boiling water.
On a large sheet of greaseproof paper, toss the chicken with salt, pepper and the five-spice. Fold over the paper, then bash and flatten the chicken to 1.5cm thick with a rolling pin. Put into the large frying pan with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, turning after 3 or 4 minutes, until nicely charred and cooked through.
Drain the noodles and toss with 1 tablespoon of sesame oil on a big serving platter. Put half of the noodles into the medium frying pan, tossing regularly until nice and crunchy.
Remove the watermelon skin, cut the flesh into erratic chunks and add to the platter. Trim the lettuces and cut into small wedges, halve the radishes, finely slice the top leafy half of the mint and most of the top leafy half of the coriander, and scatter over the platter.
Put the coriander stalks into the liquidizer with the soy and fish sauces, chilli, peeled ginger, trimmed spring onions, a splash of water, 1 tablespoon of sesame oil and the lime juice. Squash in the unpeeled garlic through a garlic crusher, then whiz until smooth.
Drain away any excess fat from the chicken pan, put back on the heat, drizzle with the sweet chilli sauce and toss with the sesame seeds.
Pour the dressing over the salad and toss gently with clean fingers until well coated, then break over the crispy noodles.
Transfer the chicken to a board and serve with an extra sprinkling of coriander leaves.
I changed it a little bit by using my favourite pre-packaged crispy noodles and slicing the radishes instead of halving them.
It did take me a little longer than 15 minutes, but not much longer and I have used the dressing a lot on other salads since. The entire family loved this recipe, especially the chicken.
I hope you give it a try.
