Fantastic Tropical Thai Chicken Salad

dale!'s Note:

A really impressive restaurant type dish. Very colourful and attractive with an amazing taste. Most of this can be prepared ahead of time. The vegetables and chicken can all be prepared up to 8 hours ahead of serving and refrigerated. Just before serving cut up the avocado, toss the vegetables with the dressing and assemble the dish. Prep time does not include marinating time.

• Total Time: 1 hrs 15 mins
• Prep Time: 1 hrs
• Cook Time: 15 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 5 chicken breasts
• 2 papayas (firm and not quite ripe)
• 2 red capsicums
• ½ cucumber
• ½ cup pine nuts , toasted
• 2 ripe avocados
• 4 cups fresh salad greens

Salad Dressing

• 1 tablespoon lime zest , minced
• 6 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• ¼ cup safflower oil or ¼ cup other oil
• ¼ cup light brown sugar
• ¼ cup Thai fish sauce
• 2 teaspoons chili sauce (Asian style)
• 2 tablespoons ginger , finely minced
• 2 garlic cloves , finely minced
• 3 tablespoons coriander , minced

Directions:

1. In a small jar combine the dressing ingredients and shake well.
2. Pour half the dressing over the chicken and marinate at least 15 minutes.
3. Set aside the rest of the dressing.
4. Barbecue, grill or roast the chicken, basting with the used marinade.
5. Cool and cut into bite sized pieces and refrigerate until ready to use.
6. Peel, seed and dice the papayas.
7. Cut up the capsicums into squares after removing seeds and ribs.
8. Cut the cucumber into cubes.
9. Wash and dry the salad greens.
10. To toast the pine nuts, place them on a baking tray in a preheated 325 degree oven for about 8 minutes.
11. When ready to assemble and serve, seed, peel and cut the avocado into cubes.
12. Combine all the salad ingredients except chicken in a bowl and toss through the salad dressing.
13. Place the salad onto four plates or 1 large platter, lay the chicken on top and sprinkle with pine nuts and serve immediately.

Reviews

[CheezCrazy]

Honestly fantastic! Will definitely be making this again. I also used mangos instead of papayas and I used leftover chicken (poured over half the marinade and heated a little).

[Lt. Amy]

We didn't have red capsicums (and did't really know what they were) so I substituted a pepper. I only used one papaya, one avocado and used a whole cucumber and I'm glad I did. I think two papayas would have been a bit much.

[horsephoto]

refreshing