Barefoot Bloggers: Chinese Chicken Salad

This week McKenzie of Kenzie's Kitchen chose this lovely salad from the Barefoot Contessa.
This meal was healthy and delicious! I wanted to use asparagus, I really did. But here in Lancaster, PA asparagus is not in season quite yet. It should be very soon. But asparagus is one of those vegetables I am very picky about eating only local and in season. It is just not very good shipped in from thousands of miles away, I think.
So I used snow peas, and they worked very well. I also used rice vinegar instead of apple cider vinegar.
Other than that I halved the recipe and I felt really healthy about eating this dinner!!
Until I had a few glasses of wine with it. Whoops!
Hey, I'm on Easter break, I don't need to work tomorrow. So it's all good.

nocoupons

• Ingredients

  nocoupons

  • 4 split chicken breasts (bone-in, skin-on)
  • Good olive oil
  • Kosher salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 1/2 pound asparagus, ends removed, and cut in thirds diagonally (Or snow peas, cut in half diagonally)
    
  • 1 red bell pepper, cored and seeded
  • 2 scallions (white and green parts), sliced diagonally
  • 1 tablespoon white sesame seeds, toasted

  For the dressing:

  nocoupons

  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 1/4 cup good apple cider vinegar (or rice vinegar)
    
  • 3 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons dark sesame oil
  • 1/2 tablespoon honey
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1/2 teaspoon peeled, grated fresh ginger
  • 1/2 tablespoon sesame seeds, toasted
  • 1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
  • 2 teaspoons kosher salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

  Directions

  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

  Place the chicken breasts on a sheet pan and rub with the skin with olive oil. Sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper.
  

• Roast for 35 to 40 minutes, until the chicken is just cooked. Set aside until cool enough to handle. Remove the meat from the bones, discard the skin, and shred the chicken in large bite-sized pieces.

• Blanch the asparagus in a pot of boiling salted water for 3 to 5 minutes until crisp-tender. Plunge into ice water to stop the cooking. Drain. Cut the peppers in strips about the size of the asparagus pieces. Combine the cut chicken, asparagus, and peppers in a large bowl.

  Whisk together all of the ingredients for the dressing

• 

• Pour the dressing over the chicken and vegetables. Add the scallions and sesame seeds and season to taste. Serve cold or at room temperature.