[BB] Chinese Chicken Salad

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Our first Barefoot Bloggers challenge for April is Ina Garten’s Chinese Chicken Salad and it was selected by McKenzie of Kenzie’s Kitchen. I have seen the episode a couple of times in which Ina makes this salad and I so wanted to like it. I knew it had some components that were not going to be high on BeeBop’s “love-it” list, but he’s a real trooper and will try anything once. So, with high hopes I followed the recipe to the letter and we dug in. Then we looked at each other what that “I’m not so sure about this” kind of look and tried another bite.

I am sorry to report, though, that neither of us cared for this particular Barefoot Contessa recipe. The first thing that hit me was how overly salted it was. Right after that was the fact that all you can taste, other than the salt, is peanut butter.  The heavy, robust flavors of the peanut butter and sesame oil completely overwhelmed the delicate asparagus and red bell pepper. I could not taste the garlic or ginger at all. To me it was like eating a roasted chicken breast with peanut butter smeared all over it.

If I should ever make this recipe again, I would probably completely eliminate the salt, decrease the peanut butter to 2 tblsp or less, decrease the sesame oil substantially, and increase the honey, ginger and garlic.  Also, I’d add something sweet (like mandarin oranges, possibly) and something crunchier (like sliced almonds, perhaps) to the salad.

Just in case you want to try this one for yourself, I’ve included a link above to the recipe on Food Network’s web site.

Sorry, Ina.  Sorry, Barefoot Bloggers. But this one just wasn’t for us.  I know the next one will be wonderful!!

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