Back when I was interning at Cook’s Illustrated last summer, this was one of my favorite dishes to test out in the kitchens. The test cooks would make batch after batch, making revisions and listening to our feedback as the process went along. The romaine and cabbage make this a colorful winter salad, but the secret really is their dressing. A a base blend of soy sauce, orange juice, vinegar, ginger, and chili-garlic sauce is whisked together and used to poach the chicken. The base is then used to make the dressing for the salad. Since the recipe was published earlier this year, I’ve made this salad many, many times, eating it for dinner, packaging it up for lunches with a small tupperware . I’ve made a few adjustments to the original recipe, though not many. The original recipe can be found here, at the Cook’s Country website, the sister publication to Cook’s Illustrated.
First, I omitted the oranges; even while sampling this in the test kitchen, I always preferred the salads without the orange segments. I find the chopped salad and pepper combination comes together more evenly without them. Instead, using 1/4 cup of orange juice in the dressing/marinade base works just perfectly. I also prefer chicken thighs to breasts. They have a bit more fat, but they’re incredibly flavorful and moist. Instead of shredding the chicken, I used a butcher’s knife to carve the thighs into slices, and then chop the slices into evenly-sized chunks.
Some advice on making this salad: Using low sodium soy sauce is a must. With the regular versions, the saltiness can be overwhelming. Just a Tablespoon is a sodium bomb. Also, cutting all the ingredients into evenly-sized pieces will help ensure each bite of the salad has the perfect array of veggies and fixins. The first time I made this, both the bell peppers and the peanuts were too roughly chopped. Spending the extra time on finely chopping, especially with the peanuts, makes scooping these ingredients onto your fork a less unwieldy task.
I’ve also made the chicken portion of this recipe many times, saved it in the fridge, and used it to top a batch of cilantro-lime rice for a quick, hot, portable lunch. If you’re saving the salad for weekday lunches, or if you think you’ll have leftovers, don’t mix all the salad with the vinaigrette at once. Store them separately in fridge and combine just before serving. I found that a plastic ziplock bag was the perfect mode for storing the salad ingredients without taking up a lot of real estate in the fridge.
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Thanks Meg for this recipe – I saw it being made yesterday on Cooks Country, then went to the website to get the recipe as Chris mentioned during the show. As is often the case, the recipe was hidden behind a subscription window – pay now, and you can see it…. At 70 years old, I’m not going to start paying for on-line recipes; I have stacks of cookbooks, including old American Test Kitchen books that I have purchased, but I refuse to buy recipes from the web.
This was delicious. Thank you so much for this recipe. I had seen the dish made on TV, but I didn’t want to join Cook’s Illustrated to get the recipe. Then I came upon your blog. Wonderful blog!
Even my husband liked this dish, but I did put some orange segments on the top. I actually served it for dinner with whole-grain rice, instead of Napa cabbage. I put the cilantro, peanuts, and orange segments on top of the rice/chicken. Then spooned the dressing over it. In the summer we’ll use the Napa cabbage for a lighter meal.
This was delicious!! I have made this twice. Big fan of your website.