Concluding our series of homestyle Japanese dishes with a delicious, savory salad.
I love trying out new recipes and new dishes. I’m not one who likes to eat the same thing over and over (though for breakfast, I almost always have toast with peanut butter—go figure, I’m a study in contradictions!). I’m the same with leftovers, unless it’s something I really, really like, I don’t care too much for leftovers. Thankfully Nate will eat up all the leftovers for me. My human “garbage disposal” so to speak ^_^.
So I like to experiment with new recipes and I’m willing to serve them to friends even if it’s the first time I’m making it. This doesn’t always work out as some dishes don’t turn out great the first time (case in point is a braised duck recipe I made recently for a party—I’m NOT blogging about that until I perfect that recipe). But I’m grateful I tried this recipe because the salad turned out perfectly the first time and is simple enough to make with few ingredients. Nate and I agreed that we could have just eaten this dish on its own as a meal.
Make Extra for Leftovers
I did adapt the recipe a little. Instead of just using half a carrot and half a cucumber to one chicken, I used one carrot and cucumber each. I think this ratio is better anyway plus you then won’t have half of both to figure out what to do with. And the extra means you get a little bit more salad to eat—which Nate and I both did later that night happily!
The hardest part of this recipe is the julienning of the cucumber and carrots. Other than that, it’s basically just boiling and shredding a chicken breast, and making the dressing. Toss is some toasted sesame seeds and you’re good to go.
The one recommendation I have is that you don’t toss the dressing with the salad till you’re ready to serve it. This will ensure the cucumbers don’t give out too much water and make the salad soggy. Also, if your cucumbers are very seedy, make sure to remove the seedy part first before julienning.
Japanese Sesame Salad with Chicken, Carrots and Cucumber
adapted from Kumiko’s Kitchen
Ingredients
1 Cucumber
1 Carrot
1 half chicken breast
1 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp sesame oil
2 Tbsp rice vinegar
1 Tbsp toasted sesame seed
Method
1. Boil the chicken breast until cooked. Cool in cold water, and then shred by hand.
2. Julienne the cucumber and carrot into long, thin ‘match-stick’ pieces.
3. Mix the soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, sesame oil and sesame seeds together with the chicken and salad.
Enjoy!
Cheers, Annie
>Oh man, I love Japanese style cucumber salads so adding in carrots and chicken sounds brilliant! BTW, I got this nifty julienne device from Sur La Table that's great for stripping down a carrot or cucumber. I can't wait to break it in for this recipe!
>Love this! While I can do leftovers anytime, the only leftover my husband will eat is meatloaf – cold from the refrigerator on white bread with lots of ketchup. Gross!
>chicken …. cucumber …. salaaaaaaad ….. man you bring water in my mouth …. I will try to do it in my home … (before that I should findout the way to get the ingredients) HAHAHAHHA
>Great use of leftovers! I love sesame salad esp the japanese way! Yum yum!
>This looks absolutely refreshing. I hate Asian chicken salads that are doused with goopy dressing or that are too sweet. Yours is a welcome relief to all of those.
>@all – thanks for your comments!
@Single Guy Ben – thanks! Let us know how it turns out for you!
@biz319 – cold!?!
@Susanne – heheheh 😀
@Janet – thanks!
@Carolyn – yeah, not a big fan of goopy dressing.
I made this last week. I liked it so much that, after I ate up the leftovers the next day, I bought another cucumber and fixed more that night!
I julienned my cucumbers and carrots through a 1/8″ grid in my manual vegetable chopper. I did not have a problem with the cucumbers getting soggy. If anything, it was tastier after a night in the fridge because the chicken had absorbed more the flavors. Five stars.