Recipe: Thai Chicken Salad

This salad is divine - sooooooooo good. It has a lot of ingredients, it does. But it is so worth it. It may be my favorite new salad ever. Yesterday I ate it for lunch, dinner and a late night snack.

Here's what you need. Keep in mind that I was making one HUGE salad to take to book club and another HUGE salad to have here at home. It makes a lot of salad (I doubled the recipe below).

• 4 large garlic cloves

• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/3 cup fresh lime juice
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon smooth peanut butter
• 2 teaspoons chopped peeled fresh ginger
• 1 1/4 teaspoons hot chili paste
  
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 3 purchased roasted chicken breast halves, boned, skinned, shredded (I just bought chicken breasts, cubed them and then cooked them with some chili paste and olive oil)
  
• 3 cups shredded Napa cabbage
• 1 cup coarsely grated carrot
• 1 cup red bell pepper strips
• 1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion
• 1 big bunch cilantro
• 1 bag bean sprouts
• 2 medium cucumbers, halved lengthwise, thinly sliced crosswise
• 1/3 cup coarsely chopped roasted salted peanuts

• 1 bag rice noodles
  

Cook noodles in small pot of boiling water for 3 minutes. Drain; cut noodles in several places and then put outside in the snow to rapidly cool.

Puree next 7 ingredients in your food processor or blender. With machine running, gradually add oil and blend until dressing is smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Dump into big bowl. add your red onion to the same food processor and chop it up. Add to dressing.

Combine chicken, cabbage, carrot, pepper, and cucumbers - add to the bowl with the dressing and toss. Arrange atop noodles, sprinkle with peanuts, and serve.