Vietnamese Chicken and Mint Salad

The Friday Morning Cooking Presentation group loved the two salads we prepared today.  The first one was a Vietnamese Chicken and Mint Salad with heaps of fresh veggies, a light dressing and topped with chicken.

This is a wonderful light salad and it’s a recipe that even the most novice of cooks can master and look like a hero at the dining table.

If you’ve got a V slicer (mandolin) then this will be quick work for you.  In the presentation we shredded the sugarloaf cabbage, sliced the celery, capsicum and carrots using the Zyliss slicer.

All we needed to use a knife on were the chilli, mint, peanuts and shallots.

This salad is really easy to make but it is a bit time consuming if you don’t have a mandolin, shredder or food processor of some sort.

Two additions  you could make to the ingredients would be some chopped chives or celery leaves if your celery is really fresh.

Chicken

400 grams chicken tenderloin (tendon removed)
1 clove garlic
1 tsp fresh ginger
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp lime juice

Mix garlic, ginger, soy sauce and lime juice and coat chicken pieces.  Marinate for 15 minutes but no longer than an hour.

Vietnamese Salad Dressing

4 Hot red chilli seeded and finely chopped (save a few slices for salad garnish)
4 large cloves of garlic finely grated
8 tbsp sugar (1/2 cup)
6 tbsp rice vinegar
12 tbsp lime juice (180 ml)
6 tbsp fish sauce
6 tbsp vegetable oil
4 tsp grated fresh ginger
Freshly ground black pepper

Combine all ingredients in a jug and stir well to combine and set aside while you make the salad.  Make the dressing second so the flavours have a chance to develop.

Vietnamese Salad

400 grams cabbage finely shredded (we used sugarloaf)
2 medium carrots shredded, julienned or grated
2 stalks celery finely sliced
1 red capsicum finely sliced
1 green capsicum finely sliced
1 fat bunch of mint (approx 80 grams) stemmed weight finely chopped (save a few leaves for garnish)
3/4 cup roughly chopped roasted peanuts
1/2 cup finely chopped shallots (only the green ends)

In a large bowl combine the cabbage, carrot, celery, capsicum and mint.  Set aside while you cook the chicken.  Add dressing just before serving.

In a hot grill pan cook the chicken tenderloins until just cooked.

Place salad on serving plate and garnish with whole mint leaves, chopped peanuts and chilli slices.  Arrange chicken pieces on top and drizzle dressing over salad and chicken