Thai Chicken Salad

“This is like top five. We’re going to have to eat this like every other week.”

I’m not big on salad. But due to those comments, despite the lack of fantastic food photos, I shall have to recommend this recipe to all…

Charlie likes meals he can eat a lot of. Like multiple plates of food without feeling guilty and fat. I like all things Thai, as you may have noticed. This Chopped Thai Chicken Salad recipe fits both those interests perfectly. It does involve a hell of a lot of chopping, but it also makes a ton of food.

About the green papaya in this recipe. I only go to Whole Foods for specialty items and the occasional lunch salad/soup bar, because it’s way too damn expensive. (I have, however, perfected the art of getting a salad there for under $5.00, and it involves getting none of the good, heavy stuff at the end of the buffet that you actually want.) Anyway, I walked into Whole Foods almost certain that they were not going to have papaya and that whomever I asked would think I was a weirdo. Well, I was wrong. They had a bunch of papayas, called “Royal Papaya” and grown in Mexico. The fruits had dark green skin (green papaya, right?), and I grabbed one that felt ripe (because that’s what you do with fruit, right?)… and of course the smallest one I saw, since they cost $1.99/lb.

I don’t think this is what the recipe meant by green papaya. Wouldn’t you know, I took that thing home and cut it in half: definitely not green on the inside. It’s supposed to look like this when you grate it (oops). I’d already made a mess chopping cabbage, cilantro, and green onions. Then when I moved on to tackle the papaya, squishy seeds went everywhere. These seeds that were surrounded in a membrane (like frog eggs) spilled out all over the counter. Of course I popped a few, tried to eat a few (not good), and just generally squished these little foreign-looking things all around the kitchen. Charlie walked in the door about five minutes later, looked at the fruit like it was a monster and said, “WHAT is THAT?”

Green papayas are tart and crunchy. (They’re used in Thailand to make Som Tam.) This very ripe papaya that I bought was not. It tasted like a better version of cantaloupe (I hate cantaloupe), and it was super juicy. Not exactly right for this recipe. I ended up only using half. When grated, it basically turned into a very squishy, pulpy mess. I’d say the papaya was not totally necessary to this recipe, and I can see how green papaya would probably make it fantastic, but the salad was still delicious the way we made it. Soooo green papaya, ripe papaya, no papaya, your choice!

Thai Chicken Salad Recipe (serves 4-6)

Ingredients

Salad:

• 1 lb to 1.25 lbs Chicken breasts (I used tenders)
• 1 small head of cabbage, thinly sliced (hard parts removed)
• 1 large carrot, grated (or about 15 baby carrots)
• 1/2 green papaya (optional, see above)
• 1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
• 1/2 green onion, white and green parts chopped
• 1/2 cup or more chopped peanuts

Dressing:

• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 Thai chilies, finely chopped (aka bird’s eye chilies, or sub another hot chili pepper)
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons vinegar (I used 1  tbsp. white vinegar and 1 tbsp. rice vinegar)
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1/2 teaspoon fish sauce
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 1/4 cup warm water

Directions

1. Boil water. Place chicken breasts into boiling water. Boil for about 15 minutes and check for doneness.
2. Thinly slice cabbage, grate carrot (beware of knuckles if you’re stupidly grating baby carrots like me), grate papaya, chop cilantro and green onions, and mix it all together in a large bowl.
3. Finely chop garlic and chilies and place into a different bowl. Then add soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, lime juice, oil, and fish sauce. Whisk to dissolve the sugar. Then add peanut butter and warm water and whisk until combined and creamy.
4. Once chicken is cooked, use your hands or a fork to shred it. If it’s too hot, I put mine in the freezer for about 5 minutes to cool quickly. Add shredded chicken to your bowl of salad ingredients.
5. Pour dressing over the salad and toss. Top with chopped peanuts. (Don’t add them before, they’ll get soggy). Serve.

 

I won’t lie. It definitely wasn’t nearly as crunchy and flavorful when I ate it as leftovers. It gets a bit limp as you can imagine. You could prevent this by saving a little of the salad mixture and dressing separately for later. Or you could just eat all of it in one sitting! Either way…