Modified from a recipe found on allrecipes.com
Last year, my New Year's Resolution was to improve my yeast breads. I did pretty well with that and am enjoying homemade pizza and bread rather often.
This year's New Year's Resolution: take lunch to work more often. This will not be difficult to do, as I rarely brought lunch last year. It is too tempting to go out for pho with friends or swing by one of the sandwich places near my office. Now, I have a refrigerator in my office, and I am going to try to bring some sort of pasta/rice/couscous salad every week with some greens for a good midday meal 3-4 days a week. The remainder of the days-- I'll likely be having pho :)
Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup sesame seeds
- 1 (16 ounce) package bow tie or similar-shaped pasta
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1/3 cup light soy sauce
- 1/3 cup rice vinegar
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 3 tablespoons white sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 3 cups shredded, cooked chicken breast meat
- 1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
- 1/3 cup chopped green onion
- 1 can baby corn, sliced
- 1/4 diced red bell pepper
- 1/2 cup julienned carrot
- 1 cup blanched and sliced snow peas
Instructions:
- Heat a skillet over medium-high heat. Add sesame seeds, and cook stirring frequently until lightly toasted. Remove from heat, and set aside.
- Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta, and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, or until al dente. Drain pasta, and rinse under cold water until cool. Transfer to a large bowl.
- In a jar with a tight-fitting lid, combine vegetable oil, soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, sugar, sesame seeds, ginger, and pepper. Shake well.
- Pour sesame dressing over pasta, and toss to coat evenly. Gently mix in chicken, cilantro, green onions, and other vegetables.
Notes:
- I made the chicken mixture and kept the pasta separate. The chicken tasted even better after the flavors melded overnight. Each morning, I prepared a to-go pyrex dish with the chicken mixture on the bottom, with pasta and baby spinach leaves sitting on top. This way the pasta didn't soak up all the dressing. I then mixed it right before lunch.
- Change up the type and amount of vegetables to your liking. Water chestnuts may be an option if you care for them. I blanched the snow peas in the pot of boiling water, removed them, then boiled the pasta.
- For the shredded chicken, I poached two bone-in chicken breasts using The Kitchn's method.
- After I took the photo I realized I forgot the sesame seeds and had to re-mix--whoops. It looks even better with all the toasted sesame seeds!
Liz's Rating: 10/10
Tim's Rating: 9.5/10
6 comments:
I will definitely try this next week for lunch. Thanks for the recipe!
If you're looking for another lunch salad recipe, this one from David Lebovitz is great.
http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2010/01/roasted_root_vegetable_wheat_ber.html
This looks like a great lunch and a nice twist on pasta salad.
Have enjoyed reading your posts the last couple weeks - glad you're back to blogging more frequently. Your blog is one of my favorite sources of inspiration! :)
I am always looking for more ideas for lunches. Sometimes I feel I've made everything 8 million times already and start going out to eat all the time.
Just found your blog today... very nice!
I had the same NY Resolution in 2009, but with limited success - trying again this year!
how did you cook the chicken, poached, stir-fried? The salad seems perfect for lunch at work
thank you!
Looks delicious. I could eat this any time!
Oh wow - this looks like it would be perfect for my office potluck!
Post a Comment