Asian Chopped Salad with Marinated Chicken Nuggets

Finally, I am sharing a dinner salad!  I really do eat a lot of salads but I rarely put them on the blog.  Salads always seem too common sense to insult you with a recipe, I guess.  But this one, I got from the Wagamama Cookbook and while most of it can be toyed with, there is a dressing on here that is to die for.  I will share that recipe below.

For the salad, I chopped sweet peppers with cilantro and spring greens and lots of green onion.  And I topped it with these fried chicken nuggets.  The nuggets are made by marinating large cubed chicken thighs in fish sauce, garlic, ginger, cilantro, tamari and vegetable oil for a day.  The chicken pieces are then tossed lightly in cornstarch and deep fried in hot vegetable oil until golden.  Holy cow, do try this!  It's worth any amount of effort, and actually comes together pretty fast.  Note that for the salad pictured above, I added some amai sauce, which is dark, salty, tangy and sweet.  I really like to pack this salad with major flavor.  I often go very heavy on the spice and the ginger, but I try to be careful not to add too much dressing, or things all start to taste the same.

And here's the recipe I hope you try...
This comes from the Wagamama Cookbook, which is one of my favorite books of all time.  There are so many recipes in here that are knocking my socks off.

Wagamama Salad Dressing
Makes one cup.

2 teaspoons minced shallot
One inch section of fresh ginger, peeled and grated finely
One clove garlic, minced
1 1/2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon ketchup
1 tablespoon water
a bit less than 1/2 cup flavorless oil
3 tablespoons low sodium tamari sauce

Mix all together by shaking vigorously in a lidded jar.  Keeps in the fridge for several days.

You may be surprised how good this is.  I hope you try it!

Enjoy!