Oriental Chicken Salad

Since I am afflicted and needy, let the Lord be mindful of me. You are my help and my deliverer; Do not delay, O my God. Psalm 17

I am a big fan of the oriental chicken salad at Applebee's. (My mom and her friends eat there all the time and I join them on occasion.) Although not much about the salad tastes oriental. I got this recipe for the Applebee's dressing from a copycat website. It is not as sweet as the one at the restaurant and has a more oriental kick to it from the sesame oil. I actually like it a lot better than the one there. Anyway, this is an example of a meal I serve my family in an attempt for it to seem like I cooked but really it involved no cooking. You can do grilled chicken to make it more healthy but for ease, I picked up chicken fingers at Publix. (Photo is Anne Rainey's new silly face she makes!)

Dressing:

3 T. honey

1.5 T. rice wine vinegar

1/4 C. mayo

1 tsp. Grey Poupon Dijon mustard

1/8 tsp. sesame oil

Lettuce

Chicken Fingers (chopped)

Craisons

Feta

Mandarin Oranges

Can of crunchy Chow Mein noodles

Sliced almonds, toasted

Mix up dressing with a whisk. Cover and chill in the fridge. Toast and cool almonds. Then just toss everything together in a big salad bowl. You really can use whatever additions to the salad you like and as much or as little of each ingredient. I just tossed in handfuls of a bunch of things that I already had. I like feta on anything even though it may not sound like it goes with this salad. I doubled the dressing when I made it and it was enough for salad for 6-8 adults.

Tips:

My kids do not eat salad so their dinner this night was: chopped up chicken fingers, mandarin oranges and some of the crunchies and nuts... the parts of the salad minus the lettuce and dressing. Easy enough. Sesame oil is in the ethnic food section with the chinese stuff.