Asian Chicken Salad

Living in a small town has its good and bad. Depending upon who you ask, the bad is not always bad. Bad is perspective, see. This small town has most major fast food chains and not a single dine chain. Fine by me! Mom and Pop local eateries are the only place one here is going to get a salad, not a salad bar, a pre-formed grilled burger, not a robin burger, and dinner will be at home. I can not think of a single Mom and Pop that serves dinner. Breakfast starting at 4, lunch until 2, and home by 3. There are a couple of super fancy (serving to the out of town high end clientele) restaurants but none of the locals eat there. No TGIF wings except in the frozen section at Walmart, no PF Chang's egg rolls except in the frozen section at the local grocer, no Applebee's Oriental Chicken Salad.

Modifications Made:

Salad: Even with all the time in the world right now, using pre-made salads are the best. No waste with leftover unused heads of cabbage or lettuce, no shredding of cabbage or carrots. Just cut and pour. Almonds slivers were omitted for the same reason as when served on Eat Your Greens.

Tenders: Here is where the changes lie. Tenders were marinated as instructed in the Crispy Asian Chicken Tenders, battered in plain panko crumbs, but instead of baked, they were fried. Fried, just like they are served at Applebee's. The chicken tender version on this recipe was made by a health conscious minded eater. Not this table, we like fried foods.

Sauce: Low fat replaced nonfat Greek yogurt, two teaspoons of apple cider vinegar replaced rice vinegar, and whole milk replaced nonfat milk.

Scaled for Likability: Great

Not ever having been to an Applebee's I have no way to compare this recipe with the real deal. It doesn't matter really as this recipe, with the fried chicken tenders, was so good. It was very hard not to eat the tenders with the sauce as they came out of the fryer they were so good. I would make these tenders just to have tenders, no salad, no veggies, maybe not even sauce. Just chicken fried carb sticks. The absence of almond slivers went unnoticed and I cannot image they really bring much to the salad when the chicken is fried anyways. Definitely worth the effort of frying the chicken tenders. Definitely delish!

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