Asian Style Poached Chicken Salad

As promised, here is the second salad from my catering weekend. This time it's an Asian Style Poached Chicken Salad with Rice Noodles.


This salad is gluten and dairy free and also very yummy! I make a very blingy version of this salad with seared beef for my family and it is our ultimate favourite dish ever. I add lots of chilli for us, but to keep it friendly for the masses I kindly forgo the bitey bits.

The first job on hand is to poach the chicken.

I allow 100g per lunch serve, that's plenty for this type of thing when it's bulked up with the rest of the salad ingredients. You can be really simple and just poach in water, but I like to infuse the chicken with some yummy asian inspired flavours. I use a tin or 2 of coconut milk, some ginger, a stalk or 2 of lemongrass that I've bashed around to release it's yumminess, and a couple of scrumpled up kaffir lime leaves too. Leave the chicken in whole breasts to avoid it drying out and place it into the simmering poaching liquid, just make sure there's enough for the chicken to be covered by and a bit more for evaporation. Leave on the heat and keep at a simmer for about 10mins, then turn off the heat, cover, and leave it for about an hour to finish cooking. Don't peek, just check at the end of this time and they should be perfect. If by some chance they're not, bring them back to the simmer for about 5 more minutes. Drain the meat and don't forget to save the liquid for stock, you could turn it into a very yummy wonton soup or something, or if you can't be bothered, take out the chunky bits and feed it to the dog, ours is so happy when mummy has run out of fridge room!

Once the chicken has chilled, chop or shred it into pieces that can easily be stabbed with a fork. Remember this salad is being balanced in one hand and eaten with the other. This will probably take longer to read than to get this going at this point!

Have I mentioned before that I love the products by Changs? I am not paid to advertise their stuff, I just love it very much. They are so kind to us InTolerants, and I just want to share the love!

The base of this salad is a nice rice noodle. These little packets come in 4 little cake portions and 1 cake will do 2 serves for a lunch box, or 1 serve for dinner. Just pour some boiling water over the little cake and let it sit for about 10mins. The noodles will swell, so make sure they are totally submerged and the bowl is big enough.

Now prepare yourself for lots of chopping.The good news is that once the chopping is done, the salad comes together in record time.

Finely slice or shred equal quantities of some iceberg lettuce - you need this type of lettuce for the crunch it delivers, don't try and use a soft butter leaf , and some chinese cabbage- we call it wombok.

Also a big handful of mint and for home I also use corriander. I always say that herbs should be used as ingredients not garnishes so be generous and you will really appreciate the freshness they bring.

Also a big pinch of shredded carrot per person, a few slices of lebanese cucumber and about 3 halved cherry tomatoes for the squirt of sweetness they bring.

Layer all these ingredients together in the lunch box, or toss it all together in a big bowl.

For the dressing, I combine equal quantities of vinegar and water and bring to a boil with a good spoon of castor sugar- just enough to take the harshness off. Add in a good spoon of lime juice and fish sauce. You are trying to get a nice balance of sweet, salty and sour so adjust accordingly.

Simmer until just a little reduced and a little syrupy. When it's cool add about a third of its amount with a neutral oil like peanut or ricebran, and a good splash of sesame oil for richness and nuttiness.

Put a good tablespoon of dressing on top of the mix in each salad box.

Toss this all together, the trick is to get everyone to shake,shake,shake their boxes up to mix it and distribute the dressing evenly through it all.
Grab a fork and dig in! There should be a nice freshness from the herbs and slight tang from the dressing, but a lightness overall without any heaviness on your palate or in your tummy!

So Readers, what is your families favourite salad?

Singapore Noodles

Apparently, I may not be me.

After 20yrs of marriage, BigJ and I are planning a trip away. We have never had a holiday before. Oh, we visit The Farm, in Queensland, but staying with family is not a holiday. A holiday means: not cooking, not cleaning, not seeing anyone you're related to (unless invited), the whole day stretching ahead of you just to explore, and having people wait on you for a change! Apart from 3 weekends away from our children, that has been it.... for 20 years! I deserve a holiday!!

Unfortunately for me, the Australian Government disagrees. You see, I have a secret past. I was not born in this country.

I was born in Singapore.

Now, I've always thought of that as 'exotic and exciting'. When I was born, my sisters cried because they wanted an Asian baby like the others in the hospital. They didn't consider me exotic or exciting at all, and I've never been able to convince them otherwise. But secretly, I know I am. Our holiday plan is to revisit the place of my birth.

The trouble is.... I'm not who I say I am.

I only have a foreign birth certificate. The passport office doesn't like that. Apparently it doesn't count. When I entered our lovely country as a toddler I came in on my mothers passport. OK, to get my own I need original papers proving I was registered at the High Commission. I don't have any. Not originals, and certified copies are just not the same.
I also need to prove my change of name. All the official documents with my photo and name, like drivers licence don't count either. I need to prove when I changed my name at marriage. So off I went to apply. I then found out I don't have an 'official' marriage certificate! We are married (I checked!) but way back then, you were only given a ceremonial certificate, it's no longer acceptable as a legal document.
I went to apply for a new marriage certificate, but then found out I cannot get one here as we were actually married about 5kms over the state border. I need to apply interstate.
In order to do that, I need to prove who I am.
I only have a foreign birth certificate.
See the problem?

My husband finds this highly amusing.
I don't.

Anyway, in case I'm deported, I have decided to embrace my Singaporean roots and cook... Singapore Noodles.

I know that this dish is not authentic, rather a Westernized ideal of what a real Singaporean is like. Just like me... a bit confused, and stuck between two cultures. I take solace in the fact that the dish is delicious, and proves that somehow, it all works out alright in the end.

Start off with about 300g of chicken thigh fillets. The thigh has much more flavour, and if you're just chopping it up anyway, no one will know. Marinate this in 1/4 cup of gfree soy sauce, 2 tabs of Chinese cooking wine, and 2 tabs of crushed ginger. Leave while you get everything else ready.

For my family, I use a whole packet of rice noodles. They need to be soaked in boiling water for 10mins or so, until softened, then drained.

While everything is soaking and marinating, chop up your veggies. I like to use sliced snow peas, red capsicum, spring onions, mungbean sprouts, celery and shredded carrots. Try and make them fairly uniform in size so they cook at the same time.

I buy yummy BBQ Chinese pork at a take away place as we like the flavour, but you can leave it out or use some ham or Chinese sausage if you want.

Throw in a handful of prawns to add a nice sweetness of flavour.

You also need 2 eggs, about 1/2 a cup of lfree milk or stock if you prefer, and the most important ingredient..... 2 tabs of plain old curry powder. That's right, plain old curry powder. Whisk together and put aside for now.

1. Heat your wok and cook off the drained chicken. Take out and put aside. Lightly cook the prawns, but be careful as they will heat through later and you don't want them to get dry and chewy.

2. Toss in the veggies and stir fry with a bit of water to moisten which will help add some steam and cook quickly.

3. Add the noodles and meats and stir thoroughly to heat through and mix evenly- or some one will complain that they didn't get her share of prawns, or he got too many veggies.

4. Pour in the egg and curry mix and toss around and around and around. The egg mix will coat the noodles and cook off with the residual heat.

5. Dish up and enjoy!

So Readers, do you have any hidden secrets?