Chinese Chicken Salad

This Barefoot Blogger recipe was chosen by McKenzie of Kenzie's Kitchen. You can find the recipe here.

When I envision a chicken salad, it's usually a pretty simple picture of chicken, mayo, celery and a few other small touches. I certainly don't consider red peppers or asparagus in the picture, and I would never expect peanut butter. But here you have it, and wonders of all wonders, it works beautifully together! There are several things I like about this salad:

• The flavors are unexpected, a wonderful departure from the tried-and-true chicken salads.
• The colors are magnificent. Just look at those vibrant red and greens against a backdrop of white!
• The salad has so many possibilities. Serve it over a bed of fresh spinach, stir in a bag of broccoli slaw, or toss in a few cashews or ramen noodles to crunch up the texture.

Several things I would suggest. If you're making the salad for a potluck, store your ingredients in separate containers or baggies and mix the salad right before you eat it. This will keep all the components fresh and flavorful. Before you mix the dressing together, make sure you like the smell and flavor of dark sesame oil. I like it, but I don't care for it's flavor coming through strongly in a dish. For this recipe, I reduced the sesame oil and used only 2 tsp. Be conservative with the dressing, too. I found this made more than enough dressing. I also didn't add any salt to the salad because the soy sauce and peanut butter seemed to make the dish plenty salty. I made these modifications based on reviews I read on foodtv.com.