But it isn’t just chicken and cabbage that go into this one bowl meal. There’s lettuce, bell pepper, beans, roasted cashew nuts and sliced peaches. So you can just imagine the interplay of flavors and textures in this dish.
Now, about substutitions. If you have fresh ripe and very sweet mangoes, choose them over canned peaches.
Just cut open the mangoes, score to create thin strips then scoop out with a spoon or the mouth of a drinking glass.
The black-eyed beans can be substituted with any kind of beans. Butter beans, pinto beans or kidney beans will work just fine.
Fried chicken fillet, sliced red cabbage, bell pepper, black-eyed beans, lettuce, cashew nuts and peach slices are tossed and drizzled with peanut dressing in this fried chicken and red cabbage salad.
Ingredients
Peanut dressing
- ¼ cup smooth unsweetened peanut butter
- ½ teaspoon grated ginger
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon honey
- fish sauce to taste
Fried chicken
- 1 chicken thigh fillet
- salt
- pepper
- 1 tablespoon rice wine
- 1 tablespoon corn starch
- cooking oil for deep frying
Salad
- ½ cup thinly sliced red cabbage
- ½ cup thinly sliced Romaine lettuce
- 1 small red bell pepper thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons black-eyed beans tossed with a pinch of salt
- 2 tablespoons roasted cashew nuts
- sliced peaches (or mangoes), as many as you like
Instructions
Make the peanut dressing
- In a bowl, stir together the peanut butter, grated ginger, rice vinegar and honey.
- Add water, a tablespoon at a time, until the mixture is pourable but still thick.
- Mix in enough fish sauce to create your preferred flavor balance.
Fry the chicken
- With the knife held at a 45-degree angle, cut the chicken fillet into six slices about a quarter of an inch thick.
- Place the chicken in a bowl and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper.
- Pour in the rice wine. Mix.
- Add the corn starch and mix again.
- Heat enough cooking oil to reach a depth of one inch.
- Fry the chicken slices until browned and crisp, about two minutes per side.
- Drain and set aside to cool a bit.
Assemble the salad
- In a large bowl, toss together the red cabbage, Romaine lettuce, bell pepper, beans, nuts and peaches.
- Add the chicken and toss again.
- Pile the salad in a bowl.
- Drizzle peanut dressing generously over the salad.
Notes
Inspired by The Recipe Critic’s Thai cashew chopped salad with a ginger peanut sauce.
