Chinese Chicken Salad

This recipe does require a bit of work as far as cooking time goes because the chicken is cooked in a crock pot. There are also several ingredients in the sauce, but if you cook Asian food, you should have these on hand. If you are interested in starting to cook some Asian food, these ingredients will stay good for quite a long time. This recipe was adapted from the magazine "Eat Well, Lose Weight" from Better Homes and Gardens. This salad could easily be a main dish for either lunch or dinner. In a word, it is delicious!


serves 6 ( 5 points + )

• 2 lbs. bone in chicken thighs, skinned
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• ½ c. hoisin sauce
• 3 T. reduced sodium soy sauce
• 2 T. fresh ginger
• 1 T. dry sherry
• 2 tsp. Asian chili garlic sauce
• 1 tsp. dark sesame oil
• 1 T. rice vinegar
• 12 c. chopped Romaine lettuce
• 1 c. shredded carrot
• ¼ c. cashews, broken

Place chicken in a crock pot along with celery, onion. Combine the next 7 ingredients ( through sesame oil). Pour over chicken. Cover and cook on low for 5-6 hours or on high for 2-½ - 3 hours. 
Remove chicken from crock pot. Reserve ½ c. cooking liquid for dressing.
When chicken is cool enough to handle, remove from bones and shred using 2 forks or your hands.


For dressing, whisk together reserved liquid with 1 T. rice vinegar.
Arrange 2 c. lettuce on each plate. Top with equal amounts of carrots, chicken, and cashews. Drizzle each salad with 2 T. dressing.