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A salad. Say what? Yes, a salad. A Chopped Thai Chicken Salad.

click here to this recipe

This is like the 2nd salad I’ve made in the last year. The Philippines is out to get me in the salad department. Conventional wisdom says: it’s hot, make a salad. But reality says, where are the bags of pre-washed baby spinach? and what is this mysterious green thing called again, and how do you peel it? and where is my salad spinner when I need it? and how can I get the fan to blow on ME without blowing my lettuce everywhere? and we’re out of bleach again? Yep. Sound the alarms. I hate it as much as you do, but we eat bleached raw vegetables. We stopped bleaching for a while, I got sick from, uh, something, and we went back to following the bleaching orders.

For those of you who are curious, bleaching vegetables is a pain in the butt. I get out these two big bowls – one filled with filtered water + 1 tiny spoonful of bleach, and one filled with filtered water for rinsing. Then we soak the vegetables in the bleach water, rinse them, and this is my most blah part: we dry them. The paper towels get all sticky and fall apart all over the vegetables and by this time any kind of minimal effort I’ve put into my hair is gone and my shirt is soaked through with sweat.

IT TAKES FOREVER TO MAKE A SALAD HERE, and I will shout that.

PS. Those are calamansis, the cutest and most deliciously sweet and tart citrus fruits native to the Philippines. Think mini-lime, but fresher tasting. I don’t know how that’s possible, but it is.

But bleaching. Good news for me! If we cook the vegetables, we don’t have to bleach them. Remember the millions of {cooked} vegetable curries I’ve made this year? Ahhh. It’s all making sense now.

Don’t be afraid – this isn’t cooked. I went to all that bleaching trouble just for a big crunchy bowl of this:

And it was worth it.

Because when I’m calm and rational, I can remember how much I actually love salads and how it might actually be kind of awesome to eat a cold meal for once in my life.

And this chopped Thai chicken salad was a sweet reunion after all the time away from my beloved fresh green crunchy foods. And by beloved I mean… sort of beloved. Does anyone else have these mixed feelings?

The flavors in this thing just rocked my face off. Lime, peanuts, cilantro, carrots, green onions, vinegar, green papaya, soy sauce, chili pepper, garlic, oiyyyy! It’s all so darn good, the perfect combination of tangy and creamy and super-fresh-crunchy.

I wanted this to be a “chopped” salad because I am a big fan of extremely textured foods. The chopped cabbage and grated carrots and green papaya give the perfect base for the “chopped” vibe and are a heckofalot healthier than my current go-to crunchy food, the potato chip. Then the chicken, those crunchy lil’ peanuts (mine were accidentally garlic flavored and SO perfect for this), and the fresh green cilantro and green onions come in and get the party started. Fresh party, coming right up.

I used a green papaya in this because that tangy, spicy, acidic punch of this incredible fruit is just mesmerizing. Except then I picked out a green papaya that wasn’t green, because I don’t know how to pick underripe fruits well? that was still tangy, but yellow.

And then you saw the picture and wondered if I had put cheddar cheese in this salad.

Nope. Thaaat’s a papaya.

On the topic of green papaya, I’m sorry to say that nothing is going to give you the same amount of tangy spiciness as a green papaya except maybe a green mango, and if you don’t have access to green papayas then you probably don’t access to green mango, either. So the best option for you non-tropical friends would just be any crunchy vegetable that you like. I’m thinking raw cucumber, raw zucchini or more cabbage or carrots. The taste will be a little less zingy, but the other vegetables and dressing alone are enough to be totally addicting.

So, yeah.

Ready, set, crunchalicious.

Chopped Thai Chicken Salad

• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 20 mins
• Yield: 4-6 1x

This simple chopped Thai chicken salad has incredible flavors – peanut, lime, soy, chili, cilantro. Topped with a homemade dressing. Healthy and fresh.

Scale

Salad

• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1 small head green or white cabbage (2 cups shredded)
• 1 large carrot (1 1/2 cups shredded)
• 1 green papaya (1 1/2 cups shredded)
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro
• 1/2 cup green onions
• 1/2 cup chopped peanuts

Dressing

• 2 cloves garlic
• 3 bird’s eye chili peppers (sub 1/2 teaspoon minced hot pepper)
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons vinegar
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1/2 teaspoon fish sauce
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 1/4 cup water

Instructions

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add the chicken breasts, cover, and cook for 15-20 minutes. When the chicken is done, remove from heat, drain water, let cool, and shred with two forks.
2. Chop the cabbage into very thin pieces, like it would be for coleslaw. I did this by rolling up several leaves together and making thin vertical slices across the roll and then chopping them once horizontally. Peel and grate the carrots. Cut off the skin, remove the seeds, and grate the papaya. Roughly chop the cilantro and green onions. Toss the chicken and vegetables in a large bowl and keep chilled.
3. Mince the garlic and chili peppers. Place garlic and peppers in a small mixing bowl with the soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, lime juice, oil, and fish sauce. Whisk until smooth. Add the peanut butter and water and whisk again until smooth and creamy.
4. Toss the salad with the dressing. Add the crushed peanuts. Serve chilled. Leftovers can be stored in the fridge for up to one day. For best results, keep the leftover salad and dressing separate until ready to serve.

Original article and pictures take http://pinchofyum.com/chopped-thai-chicken-salad site