Laurie'S Chinese Chicken Salad With 5-Spice Dressing - cooking recipe

Ingredients

Salad
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 head red leaf lettuce, large (washed, dried, and torn into bite size pieces)
3 scallions, thinly sliced
1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded, and sliced
2 stalks celery, sliced diagonally
3 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted
3 tablespoons slivered almonds, toasted
6 ounces mai fun rice noodles, sometimes called rice sticks
peanut oil, for frying Mai Fun noodles
Dressing
5 -6 tablespoons sugar
7 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon msg (optional)
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon five-spice powder
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Preparation

The night before serving or early in the morning, place all salad dressing ingredients into a jar with a lid. Shake until well blended and set aside to meld.
Steam chicken breasts for about 20 minuets, or until juices run clear, let cool.
Shred cooled chicken into small pieces and mix well with about 2 tablespoons of the dressing. You may use more or less, depending on how much chicken you have. You don't want to saturate it with too much dressing.
Refrigerate chicken and dressing over night.
You can fry the Mai Fun now or the next day.
To fry the Mai Fun noodles:
Heat oil to 350\u00b0F.
Break apart noodles and fry a small amount at a time and drain on paper towels or a paper grocery bag. If you have never fried Mai Fun, they immediately expand to the top of the wok as soon as they hit the oil, so doing this in small batches is important.
Before serving, lightly toss all ingredients together without adding the dressing. This is important because the Mai Fun noodles will quickly absorb your dressing.
Pour on dressing and toss again.