Satay Chicken Salad

Now that Spring is in full swing and Lundulph and I have spent several week-ends cleaning and rejuvenating our patio, I want to cook things we can eat outside. Tonight was not to be sadly, it was just a little too cold, but we've had several meals at our little table outside and it's been very nice.

I've had this recipe card from Waitrose stuck to the Fridge for a very long time and it's no longer on the Waitrose website. It's overly enthusiastic about preparation and cooking times as well as some of the proportions, but it was good enough as a start and there's room for improvement.

Ingredients

600 g chicken breasts
2 smallish carrots
6 - 7 radishes
half a small white cabbage (grapefruit size)
half a cucumber
2 salad onions
2 tbsp grapeseed oil
100 g satay sauce
1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
100 g frozen peas
2 tbsp water
150 g rice noodles
½ dl dry roasted crushed peanuts
1 lime (optional)

Method

1. Trim the chicken breasts and cut into strips, about 3 cm thick, then set aside on a grill pan. Pre-heat the grill.
2. Peel and julienne or grate the carrots thinly.
3. Trim, wash and cut the radishes into thin slices.
4. Remove any wilted outer leaves from the cabbage as well as the stalk, then shred finely.
5. Peel the cucumber and cut in half lengthwise, then using a melon baller, remove the seeds and discard. Slice the cucumber thinly as well.
6. Trim and finely cut the salad onions.
7. Place all the sliced vegetables in a bowl and stir through to mix.
8. Brush the grapeseed oil on the chicken strips and grill until fully cooked, turning a couple of times.
9. As the chicken is almost ready, place the frozen peas in a bowl with a couple of tbsp water, cover and microwave for a minute, stir and then for a further few seconds to get them warmed through. Then drain and stir in with the other vegetables.
10. Heat up the toasted sesame oil in a large pan and fry the rice noodles to warm them through. Then stir into the vegetables.
11. When the chicken is ready, remove, cut the strips into bite-sized pieces and stir together with the satay sauce to get them coated all over.
12. Stir in the chicken along with the crushed peanuts into the vegetables and serve immediately while the chicken and rice are still warm, with a wedge of lime to squeeze over.

This was a really nice and tasty surprise. What originally attracted me to the recipe was the photo on the card, I hadn't bothered to read it. When I did, I was a bit disappointed, as it didn't read like a "real" recipe, but I didn't have any better ideas, so I went for it anyway and I'm quite glad I did, it was a really good meal.

It's almost needless to say by now that I've made alterations to what the recipe card states, as I wasn't able to get hold of the special brand of satay sauce that the card was advertising and I forgot the lime, as Lundulph came home and was hungry, so we just sat down and ate straight away. When I remembered the lime and mentioned this to him, his comment was, that it would not have worked. I disagree, but didn't get to prove my point.

The recipe stated that it was 4 portions. I'd say more like 5 or even 6, so after we'd had our dinner, there was still quite a lot left, which went into the fridge. The fresh vegetables in the salad meant that it couldn't be reheated, but frankly it worked quite well cold as well, I took some with me for my lunch the next day and it was just as tasty as the night before.