Hello y’all! Welcome to my new Beyond Kimchee site.
First of all I apologize for not posting recipes for a while. Sometimes life throws you with things that are crazy and chaotic. But in the middle of all the craziness, I managed to create my new blog with its own domain name. Oh, bless my diligence… 🙂
If you have been a subscriber with my blogger blog, please, add this site to your subscription again either via E-mail or RSS. Because I don’t want to looooose you… I still have lots of work to fill many pages and re-edit older posts that I transferred. But I decided that I should work things out as I am blogging along. It will take some time. So, please, be patient with me.
Okay, I will stop self-promoting my blog now.
I chose simple Korean Chicken Salad with cucumber in tangy sesame mustard dressing as my very first recipe for my new blog. This recipe is great for many reasons.
#1: You like chicken.
#2: It is very Korean.
#3: Delicioso!
#4: Heart healthy, figure friendly, gluten free, and stress free, I think…
#5: Because Holly (me) recommends it — most important!
The secret of bringing this recipe to be the top notch is in poaching your chicken without yielding any gamy poultry smell. I will show you how you can achieve that. So come along and watch carefully, Okay?
Poach chicken breasts with onion, ginger, garlic and bay leaves over low heat for 30 minutes. There is one ingredient I want to add in this step though.
This is totally optional ingredient. It is Korean red ginseng powder. This gets rid of those yucky poultry smell like no other, and adds wonderful Korean flavor into your chicken.
You can buy this in major Korean grocery stores, or fly to Korea to buy it at Incheon airport (w/ duty free). A little expensive ($50!!!) but makes wonderful health supplement tea (mixed with honey) to boost your immune system.
Shred your chicken into small pieces, cool and let them chill in the fridge until ready to serve.
Cucumber is chicken’s eternal friend in Korean salads. Remove seeds and slice thinly.
Sprinkle 1/2 tsp salt and toss. Let them sit for 10-15 minutes.
So the salt sucks the life out of them and season them at the same time. Give them a good rinse.
Squeeze them to show how much you love them. This step will reduce the water in the cucumber so your salad won’t get watery.
Grab an onion who is lingering alone in your kitchen counter and slice it thinly.
Time to make the dressing.
This is a Korean mustard. It is grounded mustard seeds without any added sugar or vinegar, spicy like horseradish but not the same.
You will also want to crush some toasted sesame seeds. Just a little crushing action… Your nose will sense the “very sesamified” fragrance.
Mix all the dressing ingredients in a small bowl.
And put all the good stuff together.
Toss altogether very well with your #1 kitchen gadget, your hand! That’s all. Simple, isn’t it?
Lovely salad with a slight zing…
Stuff into Croissant to make a sandwich if you wish.
That might be your next Asian chicken salad sandwich on the go.
But for me…
I just like to eat the way it is…
with my handy dandy chopsticks.
Enjoy!
Korean Chicken Salad
Ingredients
- 2 chicken breasts boneless & skinless
- 1 Asian cucumber or English cucumber seeded and thinly sliced
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 medium white onion thinly sliced
For poaching chicken:
- 1 onion or leak cut into chunks
- 5 garlic cloves
- 2 ginger slices
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 tablespoon rice wine
- 1/2 teaspoon Korean red ginseng powder optional
For the dressing:
- 2 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
- 2 teaspoon Korean mustard yeongeoja
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 tablespoon water
- pinch salt
Instructions
- In a sauce pan add the chicken and other poaching ingredients, pour water to cover all. Bring to low heat and poach you chicken for 25-30 minutes. Take the chicken out and discard the rest.
- Cool you chicken and shred into bite size pieces. Let them chill until ready to use.
- Sprinkle 1/2 tsp salt over cucumber slices and toss. Let it sit for 10-15 minutes to extract the moist. Rinse the cucumber slices once and squeeze out to remove water. Set aside.
- To make the salad dressing, briefly crush the toasted sesame seeds in a mortar. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl.
- In a mixing bowl combine chicken, cucumber, and onion. Drizzle the dressing over and toss well with your hand with gentle massaging motion. Serve cold or at room temperature.
I really like the clean look of your new site! and the pictures are marvelous!
Always a fan! just subscribed 😉
Mabel
http://mdcooksfor2.blogspot.com
I’ve followed you here! I love your blog and all your recipes–so glad you are going to continue blogging here.
Thanks Christine.
Yay! I’m so glad you didn’t go away. Your food is so inspiring!
Me too. I am glad that I don’t go away either. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by.
This is a beautiful chicken salad. I will have to try it soon. I like your step-by-step instructions. We don’t have a large Korean store, but a small one within walking distance. I get many ingredients there that are Korean rather than any other…like the toasted sesame oil…and a few other spices and such! So much fun! I will definitely try poaching chicken your way! Thanks!
Nice new blog space you have here! 🙂
Thanks Lyndsey. It is nice to hear that Korean store is very near to you.
All your recipes look delicious and you inspire to incorporate more Korean cuisine into my reperoire! Thanks again Holly!
Sounds like a healthy & tasty salad…sesame always adds a magical touch 🙂 Will have to try this real soon. Lovin’ the new site! Simple but pretty.
Happy Asian American History Month!!!!
Glad to see you back again! I like your new design. Nice and simple! Your chicken salad looks great too. Hope all is well with you and your family!
Saw your blogger post and got scared for a minute. I was like noooo, don’t leave I just found this awesome blog. :p lol.
That salad looks delish.
Yay! You’re back 😀 Thank you for posting, I love your new website (:
Love the new look of your site! I’ll print out the photo of the gingseng and mustard powder and hopefully will be able to find these ingredients in Milan.
Most Korean stores will carry the mustard. It might be difficult to get the ginseng powder but you can easily omit it. Thanks.
i was gonna feel sad… but then upon reading ur blog yay!… good things u didnt go away..
Definitely following on this new blog, and looking forward to more yummy korean recipes (:
I lovet the sound of this salad, so simple and clean flavours. That dressing looks delightful and I can imagine having it over so many other things!
Thanks Shuhan. It is indeed beautiful salad with clean flavor.
Beautiful site–congratulations on your own “.com” domain name! And, thanks for another lovely recipe!
yumm i love this salad!! the new site looks great, holly!
i think this is my first time posting but the new blog looks awesome! and this chicken salad looks delicious!
I MUST make this recipe. tonight. I make my version of a chinese chicken salad and tell people it’s a korean chicken salad, they ask what the difference is and I reply, “I’m half Korean, not chinese.” lol, I crack myself up! Thanks for sharing, and congrats on the new blog!
Hi Holly,
Just stopping by to say that I’ve nominated you for the ‘One Lovely Blog’ Award! Your blog has not only taught me more about Korean food– it’s made me crave it more, too! I love your descriptions of all of the recipes, as well as your lovely photos… so thank you! (For more information about the award, and how to pass it on, please stop by spontaneous tomato.)
i’ve been a frequent visitor of your site,& the photos i love ’em all which make me come back & see your recipes again & again ^_^
Congrats on the new site! It looks great. And glad you’re blogging again – I’ve missed you! Anyway, on to food. Nice recipe! Chicken salad is a great dish,and I like the way you’ve flavored yours. Good stuff – thanks.
Thanks Kitchenriffs.
Hi Holly. Glad to see you’re back – the new site looks great. 🙂 I’m going to make this salad this week. What should I serve with it?
This dish is usually served as an appetizer. But I like to stuff in the croissant and serve as a salad sandwich which makes a simple meal.
Thanks, Tiffany. Hope you are doing well.
Holly,
Your Blog is awesome.Obviously passion filled and very inspiring. Thanks!
This look absolutely delicious!!! I have all these ingredients at my fridge and I’m going to make this!
Hi, this is my first time commenting on your site. I am your silent reader who had followed your site 2 years ago. I saved so many your recipes. I even printed it and kept in one thick holder, easy for me to practice. I love to practice one by one of recipes. I am very impressed of this chicken salad. What I wanna ask is when we finish poach the chicken, can we save the broth to reuse for making another dish? Or just drink the broth? I think too pity to throw it, because it got Korean ginseng powder ( I have one bottle in my refrigerator ), since it good for our immune. 😉
Hi Meilani, you can use the broth in different dishes. Although it might not have the deep chicken broth flavor, but it can work well in Asian flavored dishes. I am glad to hear that you like my recipes. Thanks for the wonderful comment.
What a very interesting post! I love the humor. Anyway, this recipe really looks good. The good news is, I have the same red ginseng powder courtesy of a friend who just came from Korea. The bad news? I really need to find one of those Korean dressings. Nonetheless, thank you for this share. Good luck with your blogging!
Hi Holly, this looks so delicious and is definitely my type of salad! Can I use a store-bought roast chicken instead of poaching my own? Do you thinkg the flavour would be a terrible mix?
It won’t be terrible but the store-bout chicken won’t give the aroma of the Korean poached flavor. I would try it with a small portion to see if you like it.