Chicken and Blood Orange Salad with Miso Dressing

Super Easy Poached Chicken Breasts Lay the Groundwork.

I get cravings for chicken salads on a regular basis. Whereas I normally lean to the dark meat of chicken, thighs are my go-to, I greatly prefer the breasts in chicken salads. Keeping the white meat juicy is super easy. I put on a pot of salted water and bring it to the boil. I add my chicken breasts, but on the lid, and turn off the heat. An hour later I take off the lid and let the breasts cool down in the cooking liquid. At that point, they’re fully cooked, but still nice and tender and juicy. Can’t hardly get any easier than that.

At this point, you’ve got a blank slate to work with. The possibilities are almost endless. For this recipe, I knew I wanted to use blood oranges because their season is almost over and I love them. They’re so much more floral than typical navel oranges and have an almost berry-like flavor. So, I think they’re a natural in a chicken salad. I used their zest in the dressing and sliced up 4 of them for the salad. 

When I started thinking about the dressing I decided to do something I’ve never done. I used red miso in the dressing. Red miso is a lot stronger than white miso, so all it needed to round it out was a little maple syrup, a touch of pomegranate molasses, some vinegar, oil, and plenty of black pepper. It ended up being deep and beautifully rich.

I knew that roasted sesame oil would be a natural with these flavors, so here’s how I introduced it into this salad. I’ve been on a Napa cabbage jag for awhile. I’ve always used it for my kimchi, but I’ve found that it really lends itself to last minute salads in a way that regular cabbage does not. Because Napa cabbage is more delicate, it can be quickly dressed and served immediately. It doesn’t need to sit and soften. Just split open the head of cabbage, slice it up, dress it, and you’ve got a salad that has the perfect amount of crunch and is ready to be eaten.

But even more wonderful is how very few ingredients are needed in order for the cabbage to become irresistible. Yeah, I know this sounds ridiculous. Cabbage irresistible? Well, you’ve gotta try this. Even though I used this as the base for my salad, I also eat this as a side dish with many other meals. My family will ask for it if I haven’t made it recently. That’s how good it is. 

Slice up a pound of the cabbage – not too thin. It’s better if you’ve got some good size chunks in it. Put it in a large bowl. Sprinkle on a teaspoon or so of kosher salt, 1/2 teaspoon MSG, lots of freshly cracked black pepper, and 2 tablespoons roasted sesame oil. Stir it together rather vigorously. And that’s it. That’s all there is to it. It is so perfectly delicious, you won’t believe it only contains these very simple ingredients. I added sliced scallions this time, but many times I don’t. Sometimes I’ll add a little minced garlic. As to the MSG, if you don’t want to use it, just eliminate it. But it serves a very distinct purpose here. It greatly enhances the umami flavors. The sesame oil is much more profound with the addition of the MSG. 

So, now I had the base of the salad and it was only a matter of adding a few finishing touches. A couple of sliced watermelon radishes seemed like a good idea, as did a sprinkle of red pepper flakes (I used gochugaru). I love the tingling sensation and citrus-like flavor of Sichuan peppercorns ,* and thought they’d be a great addition sprinkled on top of the salad, so I toasted them in a dry skillet, coarsely ground them and was almost good to go. 

You don’t need a lot of dressing. I only spooned on a little. The only thing left to do was to add some nori on top. You can buy kizami nori ,* which is thinly sliced or shredded roasted nori. But you can easily take a few sheets of roasted nori and slice it up yourself. I just happened to have kizami nori on hand, so that’s what I used. It provides a nice hit of salty flavor of the sea that I happen to like and thought it was delicious on the salad. 

And I think it goes without saying that a salad that is not only delicious, but is also beautiful to look at is an absolute delight to eat. I don’t know about you, but when I look at something like this on my plate, my senses all come alive. I can’t wait to dig into my plate of food. And of course, crusty bread was served with it. It’s almost essential to have a chunk of bread with a meal of this kind. Sopping up the mingled juices of all the these flavors is one of the best parts. This is what I’m talking about when I say I get cravings for a chicken salad.