Leftover Chicken Asian Chopped Salad

First, we interrupt this recipe to let you know that voting is officially open at The Best of Blogs, where Kalyn's Kitchen is one of ten finalists for Best Cooking/Recipe Blog. For those of you who have been kind enough to say you wanted to vote for me, here is the link to take you to vote: The Best of Blogs Voting.

This post is the first of a new feature on Kalyn's Kitchen called Second Helpings. If you're a regular reader, you remember that one of my resolutions was not to waste food. To help with that, I'm going to start featuring dishes I make from leftovers from a previous recipe. I think this will be fun. (I love a good creative challenge in the kitchen.)

So, first I made this wonderful Greek Lemon Chicken. The chicken made a very tasty meal with Slow Roasted Asparagus and Mary's Perfect Salad. There was tons and tons of the chicken left over and I wanted to make something with it that was healthy, since I'm kind of featuring phase one recipes for the first two weeks of January for all the new lower carb eaters out there. I had quite a few interesting veggies in the refrigerator, which was one of the things that led me to this particular combination. This salad was really delicious. For sure I would make this again. Next time I might add a little grated ginger root to the dressing.

Recipe Buzz I looked at a few recipes online to think about what to put in this salad, and the dressing inspiration came mostly from a recipe I saw on RecipeZaar.

Let's Dish The lovely salmon colored bowl in this photo was a gift from my sister Sandee who I've already dished about quite a bit. But I haven't told you that when we were teenagers, Sandee and I used to sneak out the basement window of our bedroom, until finally our dad nailed it shut.

Leftover Chicken Asian Chopped Salad
(2 servings)

Dressing:
1 T Splenda
1 T soy sauce
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 T sesame oil
3 T Rice Vinegar (be sure not to get seasoned vinegar, which contains sugar)

Salad:
2 cups chopped leftover chicken
3 chops chopped romaine or iceberg lettuce
6-8 small sweet peppers (different colors if possible)
1/2 cup snow peas, cut on diagonal into fourths
1/2 cup chopped cilantro (optional)
2 T toasted sesame seed
1/3 cup coarsely chopped cashews

Mix dressing ingredients. Chop chicken and place in ziploc bag with about 3 T of the dressing mixture to marinate while you cut up the veggies. Chop lettuce. Cut peppers into rings and slice snow peas. Chop cilantro, if using. In large bowl, combine lettuce, peppers, snow peas, and cilantro and toss with dressing. (You may not need all the dressing.) Divide salad among 2 plates or bowls. Arrange chicken over salad and sprinkle with sesame seeds and cashews.

Tip from Kalyn I buy sesame seeds already toasted and keep them in the freezer so they don't go rancid.

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