Shredded, not boiled: Chicken salad with cabbage and peanut sauce

When you grow up in a half-Irish, half-Scottish family, you know cabbage in just one way—boiled beyond recognition. Among otherwise very happy memories of St. Patrick’s day, there is corned beef and cabbage, with the poor cabbage wilted and watery. I’m not commenting on anyone’s cooking abilities; the recipe all but says “chop cabbage and boil to death.”

This is not the story of how I learned to love boiled cabbage. Instead,this is the story of how I learned to love fresh cabbage. The inspiration started with the salads Thomas’s mother makes, combining shredded cabbage with a variety of ingredients. Those tasty salads opened my mind to the possibilities of fresh cabbage, so when I saw a recipe for chicken salad in Gourmet, I didn’t balk at the suggestion to use coleslaw mix as the salad base, but instead thought, why not just use cabbage? So that’s how I wound up buying a heavy head of cabbage, something that until then never appeared in my shopping cart (hey, those childhood cabbage memories have lasting effects!).

This is a recipe with many perks. It’s a great way to use leftover chicken (and cooking up a bit of chicken takes hardly any time). It provides an excellent peanut sauce recipe, something you can use again and again (you could make a bunch and keep it on hand for kebabs, salads, and other meals). The salad could incorporate various veggies, like the red bell peppers and celery here, and once you’ve chopped those, all you have to do is mix everything together in the largest salad bowl you have.

Besides the chicken, this salad requires no cooking, and it’s for people who like a lot of raw vegetables. The cabbage stays crunchy and offers texture to the salad even when drenched in sauce. Up-front soy sauce and rice vinegar flavors make the peanut sauce a little more complex—and tasty—than the stuff from the bottle. If you’re pressed for time, you can skip grinding the peanuts and sprinkling them in the salad. I left the fresh ginger out of the sauce, but feel free to add a peeled 1-inch piece when blending the other sauce ingredients.

The biggest proof that I had truly learned to love fresh cabbage was, of course, that I wanted to make the salad again. This salad might never appear on the table at an Irish party. Then again, would you be surprised if everyone there chose this over boiled cabbage? I wouldn’t be.

Chicken Salad with Cabbage and Peanut Sauce
Adapted from Gourmet

¼ cup halved peanuts (salted or unsalted)
1 large garlic clove
2/3 cup smooth no-stir peanut butter
6 tablespoons warm water
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 ½ tablespoons soy sauce
1 ½ tablespoons olive or sesame oil, plus more for cooking chicken
1 teaspoon sugar
Red-pepper flakes, to taste (optional)
1 pound chicken breast, cubed
½ head of cabbage, shredded
3 celery ribs, chopped into small pieces
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 bunch green onions (scallions), diced
1 cup chopped cilantro leaves

1. Heat a bit of olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add cubed chicken and cook, stirring occasionally, until chicken is fully cooked. Set aside.
2. Meanwhile, pulse peanuts in a food processor until they are reduced to small pieces. Transfer to a small bowl and set aside.
3. In the food processor, pulse the garlic clove until finely chopped. Add peanut butter, water, rice vinegar, soy sauce, olive oil, sugar, and red-pepper flakes (if using). Blend until a smooth sauce forms.
4. In a large bowl, combine cabbage, chicken, celery, bell pepper, green onions, and cilantro. Stir in peanut sauce in batches until vegetables are well coated. Sprinkle ground peanuts over the salad, stirring a couple of times to combine.