Pad Thai Chicken Salad

During my illustrious, yet short-lived career hustling men's clothing in Marshall Field's in Water Tower Place, I fell in love.  With a salad.  The chicken pad thai salad from Wow Bao.  A half salad and a couple BBQ pork steamed buns made me forget all about the endless pile of Buffalo jeans I had to fold upstairs.  The dressing smells like dirty feet.  You gotta trust me on this.  It's amazing. 

Never tried hacking a recipe before.  I lifted the basic recipe for the dressing here: I didn't pay attention to the salad recipe at all.  After a little tinkering, here's what I came up with.  It made two big salads for my lunches and about a cup of extra dressing.

Dressing

1/2 c boiling water

2 Tbsp tamarind paste (yes, I made my own--maybe you can find it at a Thai grocery?  The link tells you all about tamarind and making your own paste)

1/4 c. packed brown sugar

1/4 c. fish sauce

2 Tbsp chili paste

Juice of two limes

3 Tbsp sesame oil

Whisk water, tamarind paste, and brown sugar until all is dissolved.  Whisk in fish sauce, chili paste, lime juice, and sesame oil.  

Salad 

Handful of rice noodles (I used about 1/3 box)

4-5 leaves green leaf lettuce

1/4 c. roughly chopped fresh cilantro

2 Tbsp roughly chopped fresh basil

2 Tbsp roughly chopped fresh mint

1 1/2 c. bean sprouts

1/4 c. chopped peanuts

1 c. blanched snow peas

1 c. shredded napa cabbage

1 chicken breast, baked, cooled, and sliced

Crushed red chili flakes to taste

Slice of lime (optional--very pretty!)

By all means, use less red pepper or lime.  I like a lot of spice.  I start by putting the noodles on the bottom of a bowl, toss the lettuce and cabbage with the herbs, and place them on top.  Then add the chicken, peas, sprouts, red chili flakes, peanuts, and place the lime on the side.  Keep the dressing in a small container until ready to serve.  You can add/substitute any veggies you want.  Water chestnuts and tiny florets of blanched broccoli are perfect.