Chinese chicken salad (in crispy tortilla bowls)

Now that I finally have a new laptop, here is the recipe for the Chinese chicken salad I promised you. Obviously you can serve it on a plate or in a regular bowl, but it's more fun when you serve it in a crispy tortilla bowl.

The first step is to make Oriental Poached Chicken. You can use pieces of roast chicken as well, but this poached chicken tastes sooo good! You can make it a day in advance and put it in your fridge, if you want.

Oriental Poached Chicken

• 125 ml soy sauce (not the sweet kind!)
• 125 ml orange juice
• 4 dl water
• 3 pieces of fresh ginger of approx. 2,5 cm, flattened with the back of a knife
• 1/2 five spice powder (or 2 star anise)
• 4 chicken breasts (without the skin)

- Bring all liquids and spices to the boil in a pot or big pan. 
- Turn down the heat so the liquid simmers and add the pieces of chicken.
- Cover and turn the heat even lower, simmer for approx. 2 mins, turn the chicken and simmer for 2 more mins.
- Leave the chicken in the broth to cool down. (You can also put it in the fridge this way if you want to use it the next day.)
- Remove the chicken once it's cold and cut it into small pieces, suitable for a salad for children.

Chinese Chicken Salad

• The pieces of oriental poached chicken made using the recipe above, or at least 2 cups roast chicken in small pieces
• 2 or 3 spring onions, chopped
• 1 very big carrot (or a number of smaller ones), in small pieces (julienne or similar)
• 2 stems of white celery, in narrow strips
• 1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
• 2 or 3 handfuls of soy sprouts
• 1/2 cup roast sesame seed

Dressing:

• 2 tsp fresh ginger, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 2 tbsp rice vinegar

If preferred:

• 1 package oriental noodles (you can fry them instead of cooking them if you like, so they become crunchy)
• 6 or 8 crispy tortilla bowls

- Put the chicken with all of the vegetables and the sesame seeds in a bowl. Add in the dressing and stir well.

- If you want to, you can add either cooked or fried noodles to the salad, otherwise serve it without noodles in crispy tortilla bowls.

Crispy tortilla bowls

Before we had children I used to regularly make crispy tortilla bowls when we had friends over for dinner. You can use the bowls to serve a hot or cold starter or a side-dish. I tend to serve them with a cold Chinese chicken salad or a hot noodle dish. I found this recipe years ago in an Annabel Langbein cookbook. She's a cook from New-Zealand, but one day I found a Dutch version of one of her cookbooks in a bookstore here in Belgium and it has become one of my cooking bibles.

I hadn't made these in a while, but recently I suddenly thought that the children would probably love this, and they did.

Crispy tortilla bowls

All you need is (whole wheat) small or medium sized flour tortillas, some small oven tins (I use my souffle tins and some small glass oven tins that fit into them, see pictures), and an oven, obviously.

And this is how you do it:

- Preheat the oven to 200 C (180 C for a fan-assisted oven).

- Put the tortillas in small oven tins. You will need to fold them a bit, although they tend to do that automatically if you stuff them in. Just be careful not to tear them.

- Now put another tin on top of the tortilla to keep it in place.

This is what it looks like:

- Put your tortilla bowl(s) in the oven for 10 mins.
- Take them out and lower the oven temperature to 180 C (160 C for a fan-assisted oven).
- Remove the tortilla bowls from the tins. The bottom will still be soft.
- Put them on an oven tray and bake them again, for 10 to 15 mins.
- When you take them out again, the entire bowl should be crispy.

Now you can fill them with a salad or a hot (side-)dish. I will soon post the recipes for the Chinese chicken salad and a noodle dish that can be served in the bowls.