Crispy Won Ton and Chicken Asian Salad

I love a good Main Course Salad. I feel so healthy and full of  vitamins when I feed one to my family for dinner. I swear I can see their eyes shine brighter and their hair get all glossy with every bite.  But maybe that’s just my imagination running wild with me. I heard somewhere that healthy vitamins  make your eyes shine and your hair get glossy. I did. Truly. Have you heard that too? I bet you have. My mom used to say it when she would pass out carrot sticks as a snack. She’s a wise gal, wouldn’t you agree. Who doesn’t want their eyes to shine, right!

Anyhow, we have both the Rumbi Mango Chicken Salad and the Kneaders Turkey Cranberry and Sunflower Seed Salad for dinner a lot around here.  My girls absolutely love it…the boys just tolerate it (but are seeming to like it more and more each time we have it…which is a win, win in my book. Baby steps to shiny eyes and glossy hair, right!)

This Crispy Won Ton and Chicken Asian Salad is one of my new favorites. Brown rice is covered with beautiful green lettuce, green onions, red peppers and mandarin oranges. Tender chicken chunks are added along with crispy won ton strips. Drizzle the fabulous Light and Creamy Toasted Sesame Asian Dressing I posted yesterday and life will be a glorious (vitamin packed!) thing.

It honestly will.

Let me show you how to make it. You, me and your soon-to-be-glossy hair.

Time: 1 hour
Yield: 6-7 servings
Recipe from Jamie Cooks It Up!

***Note: This salad is best served in individual portions. I like to lay all of the components out on my counter and let my family make their own salad. It would also work fabulously  for a ladies luncheon. Please invite me at your earliest convenience. If you want to take this salad along to a pot-luck, bbq or party I would recommend leaving out the brown rice and mixing the other ingredients together in one big bowl, just before it’s served.***

5 C cooked brown rice (tutorial found here)
5 chicken breast (about 2-3 pounds)
olive oil
Montreal Steak Seasoning
1 (12 ounce) package Won Ton wrappers (plus oil for frying)
6 green onions
1 red bell pepper
2 (10 ounce) cans mandarin oranges
1 head romaine lettuce
Light and Creamy Toasted Sesame Asian Dressing (recipe found here)

1. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.
2. Put some brown rice on the stove to cook. You can find a recipe and tutorial for that here.
3. Make some fabulous Light and Creamy Toasted Sesame Asian Dressing and toss it in your fridge. Recipe and tutorial found here.
4. Place 5 (completely thawed) chicken breasts out on a cookie sheet you have spray with cooking spray.
5. Drizzle a bit of olive oil over the top of each breast.

6. Sprinkle some Montreal Steak Seasoning over the top of each one.

Like this. You want to be pretty generous with the seasoning.
7. Place the pan in your oven and let the chicken bake away until the insides are no longer pink. Should take about 25-30 minutes.

8. Grab a package of wonton wrappers. You can find these in the produce section of your grocery store. They are usually kept with the refrigerated veggies.

Lay them out in two piles on a cutting board.

Take a sharp knife and cut them into strips.

9. Heat up some canola or vegetable oil in a  deep skillet over medium high heat.  You will need about and inch and a half of oil. When the oil is hot carefully place some of the won ton strips into it. You won’t be able to fry all of them at once, you’ll have to cook them in 3-4 batches depending on the size of your skillet. Let them cook for about 3 minutes per batch,  or until golden brown. Take them out of the oil and place them on a plate that is covered with a paper towel. Give them a little sprinkle of salt.

Alternatively, if you don’t want all of the fat and calories that deep-frying gives us you can spray a large cookie sheet with cooking spray, lay the strips out and spray the tops of them with cooking spray as well.

Then pop them into a 400 degree oven and let them bake for about 10 minutes. Be sure to keep an eye on them…you don’t want them to get too dark. (Like the strips you see in the far left corner of this picture!)

Baked or Fried…the strips are tasty either way. It just depends on your own personal preference. Do as you please. Also, if you feel like cooking a whole grundle of won tons is going to send you over the edge into a frazzled state of madness…don’t make them, man. I feel your pain. Some days are not meant to be spent frying up wontons. I totally get it! Just find yourself some crunchy Chinese Noodles and add those instead. It will still taste great. Not as killer fabulous as eating fried won tons…but still great.

10. Set out all of your salad ingredients and let your family, friends or relatives  build their own salads. Place some brown rice on a plate,

Chop up some chicken and lay it on top of the rice.

Add some lettuce, mandarin oranges, red pepper and green onion. Add some crispy won tons,

pour on some Light and Creamy Toasted Sesame Asian Dressing and dig right in!

Hope you enjoy this one guys! I can see your eyes shining bright already….

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