thai chicken chop
with all the crunchy, creamy, perfect ingredients
I know, I know. Some of you are receiving this email and groaning. “Salad for dinner?!”
Stay with me. But also, you should just go ahead and make it for lunch today.
The Thai chicken (ground chicken seasoned with a slew of flavor bomb ingredients) is reason enough to love this recipe, but toss it with fresh crunchy romaine, carrots, edamame, cashews, the most insanely delicious curry cashew dressing, and those nostalgic crunchy wonton strip thingies? Just… so good.
Feeding kids/grown-up kids who don’t love salad? I’ve got lots of ideas for you, too, in the notes section below the recipe. Thai Chicken Rice Bowls! Thai Chicken Wraps! Thai Chicken Tacos! There are many ways to twist this recipe into a meal your family will love.
We’re going to make a double batch of the Thai chicken crumbles because they freeze WONDERFULLY for a quick protein option. Scoop out a 1/2 cup or so, defrost, re-warm, and throw it in a wrap or salad. This is the ultimate form of self-care: cooking for your future self who will be tired and exhausted and in need of a healthy meal one night in the next month-ish. Future you will thank past you!
Let’s talk about cooking with cilantro. You do not need to pick the cilantro leaves off of the stems. Cilantro stems are tender and delicious (they taste just like the leaves), so just trim off the very bottom of the stems, which have likely become hard and dry since being harvested.
Once everything’s chopped up finely, you won’t even be able to tell leaf from stem! No more throwing the stems away! Don’t waste all of that flavor!
This goes for parsley and dill too.
other times we’ve eaten salad for dinner (AND LOVED IT):
balsamic basil grilled chicken (sandwich and/or salad)
the greatest kale salad (with crispy chicken tenders)
thai chicken chopped salad
Serves 4
~30 to 45 minutes active cook time
Tools:
12-inch (preferably nonstick) skillet
Measuring spoons and cups
Large serving bowl
Gallon-sized ziplock
Ingredients:
Curry Cashew Dressing (I highly recommend doubling this — it’ll keep in your fridge for up to 1 week or you can freeze it!):
1/2 cup roasted salted cashews
1/2 cup cilantro leaves and stems
Juice of 1 lime
1 tablespoon red curry paste
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon maple syrup or honey
Pinch of salt
1/3 to 1/2 cup water
Thai Chicken (this will make enough to freeze half — go ahead and make yourself two meals at once! — so cut the recipe in half if you don’t want to do that!):
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 large shallot, diced
1 to 2 tablespoons red curry paste (1 will be flavorful, 2 will be flavorful and a bit spicy)
2 pounds ground chicken
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon fish sauce
Juice of 1 lime
1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro leaves and stems
Salad:
2 large romaine hearts, chopped into 1/2-inch pieces (about 8 cups chopped lettuce)
1 large avocado, diced
2 cups shelled edamame
1 1/2 cups shredded carrots (buy the pre-shredded kind at the store or grate 2 large carrots)
1 cup roasted salted cashews, chopped
1 cup wonton strips or chow mein noodles
Place 1/2 cup roasted salted cashews into a blender and cover with warm water. Set aside to soak while you start cooking the chicken.
Warm 1 tablespoon sesame oil in a 12-inch (preferably nonstick) skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 diced shallot and cook, stirring often, until tender, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in 1 to 2 tablespoons red curry paste (2 will be a bit spicy), smashing it against the skillet to allow it to toast a bit. Stir in 2 pounds ground chicken and use your spatula to chop the chicken into tiny crumbles as it cooks. Once it is nearly cooked through and most of the moisture from the meat has evaporated, stir in 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 1 tablespoon fish sauce, the juice of 1 lime, and 1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro until the excess liquid has all been absorbed. Set the meat aside.
Now let’s finish making the dressing. Drain the liquid out of the blender and add the remaining dressing ingredients (1/2 cup cilantro leaves and stems, juice of 1 lime, 1 tablespoon red curry paste, 1 tablespoon sesame oil, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar, 1 tablespoon maple syrup or honey, pinch of salt, and water — start with 1/3 cup). Blend on high speed until smooth. If it’s too thick, blend in 1 tablespoon of water at a time until you get the right consistency. Set aside.
Now let’s put it all together! Grab a really large serving bowl. Chop 2 large romaine hearts into 1/2-inch pieces and throw them in the bowl. If there’s any leftover cilantro, chop it up and throw it in there. Season the greens with a big pinch of salt and pepper and toss to coast.
Add 1 diced avocado, 2 cups edamame, 1 1/2 cups shredded carrots, 1 cup chopped cashews, 1 cup wonton strips, and half of the cooked chicken. Pour 1/2 cup dressing over top and toss to coat.
I like to take a chef’s knife and fork and chop the salad into tiny bits at this point! It seriously makes it taste better, you must try it!
Toss in more dressing until it’s dressed to your liking.
Divide between 4 bowls and chow down! Might I recommend eating this salad with a soup spoon?
**Once cool, add the remaining cooked chicken to a gallon-sized ziplock. Lay it flat on a baking sheet and freeze. Once frozen, you can remove the baking sheet and store the ziplock wherever in the freezer. Doing this will ensure the meat doesn’t all freeze into one big clump, which will allow you to defrost just a bit at a time for individual salads or whatever!**
link to printer version
What to cook when you don’t feel like eating a salad/recipe riffs:
Thai chicken rice bowls: Make the chicken from this recipe, but instead of serving it in a salad, make the coconut rice and peanut sauce from this recipe, steam some broccoli, and make rice bowls. Garnish with lots of fresh cilantro to make it look pretty.
Lettuce wraps: Basically make this entire recipe, but make the chicken instead of the pork.
Thai chicken tacos: Warm corn tortillas. Fill them with the Thai chicken, some chopped romaine, cashews, cilantro, avocado, and cashew dressing (but use less water in the dressing so that it’s more of a thick sauce). Yum.
Thai chicken meatballs: Add 1 large egg and 1/3 cup panko breadcrumbs to the meat mixture. Form into 10 meatballs. Bake at 400°F for 15 minutes. Serve over rice with cashew dressing, but again, add less water so that it’s more of a sauce than a dressing.
What to cook when you really don’t feel like cooking: Two options: 1) Grab an Asian salad kit and make the Thai chicken. Toss together. 2) Grab a rotisserie chicken and shred the whole thing. Skip the Thai chicken, but make the rest of the recipe as written. Toss 3 cups of shredded chicken into the salad.
Leftovers are a good thing: Try any of the riffs above if you have leftover Thai chicken. With the remainder of the shredded carrots, sauté them in sesame oil until soft, then stir in soy sauce, sriracha, and sesame seeds. A delicious easy side dish!
Prep ahead: Cook the Thai chicken and the dressing up to 3 days ahead of time and store it in the fridge in an airtight container. All of the ingredients can be chopped and prepped days in advance and kept in airtight containers.
Meal prep: Divide the lettuce and toppings (except for the nuts and wontons — they’ll get soggy in the fridge) into 4 to 5 containers. Once the chicken has cooled, add it. Don’t salt your greens until it’s time to eat, they’ll get soggy if you do. Toss with dressing and add the nuts and wontons just before eating!
Vegetarian: Instead of making the Thai chicken, just add 1 1/2 cups cooked brown rice or quinoa to the salad. Use a frozen bag to make it easy! You’re also getting protein from the cashew dressing and edamame. Another option would be to add rice noodles like these.
Feeding spice wimps: Swap every 1 tablespoon curry paste for 1 teaspoon curry powder. Paste typically contains a nice kick from fresh peppers, whereas mainstream store-bought curry powder rarely contains any spicy ingredients at all, but will still be very delicious.
Feeding kids: See the tip above about eliminating the spice if needed for your kids. If your kids aren’t into salad, I highly suggest the rice bowl riff below.
Cashews: Pepitas, sunflower seeds, peanuts, or almonds! Peanuts or almonds will be the best, the others will be great if you’re allergic to those. You can also use peanut butter or almond butter here (or any seed butter), just use 1/3 cup if using a butter.
Cilantro: Hi, cilantro haters. How are you guys today? Use fresh basil instead! Do not use the stems. Or you can just omit entirely.
Lime juice: I particularly love lime here, but if need to, you can swap in rice vinegar or another light-colored vinegar in both the dressing and Thai chicken. If you happen to have just 1 lime instead of 2, use the juice of half in each place and supplement with extra rice vinegar.
Red curry paste: Curry powder, 1 teaspoon of powder per tablespoon of curry paste
Sesame oil: Toasted and regular sesame oil are great. Just FYI, toasted is much more flavorful. You can use any neutral-tasting oil (like grapeseed, canola, olive, or sunflower oil) though.
Soy sauce: Coconut aminos or tamari
Rice wine vinegar: Another light-colored vinegar like white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar
Maple syrup: Honey, or brown or granulated sugar
Shallot: Small onion (yellow ideally, but any color would work!), leeks, or scallion
Ground chicken: Any ground meat! Pork and turkey would both be excellent.
Fish sauce: An extra tablespoon of soy sauce or rice vinegar (or a combo of both!)
Romaine: A hearty green is best here — something like arugula or mixed greens will turn to mush with a thick dressing like this one. Kale would be excellent. If you want to go with cabbage, get a head of fresh Napa cabbage and thinly slice it. Or, do a mix of 1 head of romaine and 3 cups thinly sliced cabbage.
Avocado: Omit if needed/desired
Edamame: Raw small chopped broccoli, thinly sliced red bell pepper, thinly sliced cucumber, thinly sliced fennel, or another veggie you have on hand and love. (FYI, I used a red bell pepper for these pics because I couldn’t find edamame, but I preferred this salad with edamame both for taste and for its added protein.) Also, you can use frozen shelled (aka: out of the shell) edamame beans — just look for the steam-in-bag version and steam them before adding to your salad.
Carrots: See edamame sub — any of those veggies would be great!
Wonton strips or chow mein noodles: Crunchy chickpeas or plain croutons or omit
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Editor: Molly Ramsey
Illustrations: Nhung Lê
Could you use yellow curry in this? I loved the flavor of it so much in the summer chicken curry - just wondering if that would work here? LOVE this salad!!!
Yoooooo this dressing!!!