Japanese Style Summer Chicken Salad

I'm not sure how traditional this recipe is, but this summery chicken salad with a Japanese style dressing has been tempting me for a while now. It's a sneak peek recipe from Debra Samuel's new book My Japanese Table, which I stumbled across somewhere buried on the Internet. I'm dying to try some more recipes from this book, and may have to pick up a copy pretty soon. It promises a western beginners' look into home style Japanese cuisine. And with supermarket tomatoes starting to resemble their edible summer counterparts (rather than the watery versions which have plagued me all winter), it was high time to try this recipe out.


The salad takes chicken breasts which have been cooked in a simple stock, served simply with cucumber and tomatoes, topped with a reasonably generic Asian dressing. Authentic or not, it's a beautifully tasty summer salad, with just enough dressing to make it interesting, but not drown out the simple flavours of chicken, tomato, and cucumber.


I've reduced the recipe here to serve 2 for  lunch or a light dinner. Also, Debra suggests heating the sesame oil and drizzling it over the salad before dressing it. However, as I reduced the recipe from 6 serves to just two, it proved a little difficult to do this - there just wasn't enough sesame oil. So I just added it to the dressing instead.


Debra Samuel's Sesame Chicken Salad
1 1/2c water
1 good slice of ginger (about a half cm thick)
1/4 medium onion, sliced (I sliced the whole thing and packed the rest up for another night's dinner)
1 chicken breast
1/3 telegraph cucumber, seeds removed and diced
1 large vine ripened tomato, diced (you want something sweet and tasty)
2 spring onions, finely sliced
Salt and Pepper to taste

Vinaigrette
1T light soy sauce
1T sesame oil
1t lemon juice (or a small squeeze)
1t rice vinegar
1/4t sugar
A good crack of pepper


Get your water on the boil in a small pan which will just fit the chicken breast. Add the ginger and onion, and let it boil for a couple of minutes. Then add the chicken breast. Bring back to the boil (ensuring there is enough water to just cover the chicken breast, reduce to a simmer, and let it cook for about 15 mins.


While the chicken is cooking, prepare your cucumber, tomato, and spring onions, and pop them in a bowl for tossing once everything is ready.


Once the chicken has cooked for 15 mins, turn off the heat and let the chicken sit in the hot liquid for 10 mins. Then lift it out of the water, let cool briefly, and pull into small chunks with a couple of forks.


Add the chicken to the tomato and cucumber, and toss through.


Combine all the vinegarette ingredients, and pop into the microwave for a minute. Stir it through to make sure the sugar has dissolved. Then spoon over your salad, toss through once more and serve!