Green Dragon Chicken Rolls

My friend, Pooh, was at Trader Joe’s when they were handing out samples of these rolls. She loved them so much, she asked the lady how she made them, then wasted no time picking up all the ingredients to try making them herself once she got home. She then came over to my house and taught me how to make them.

These rolls make a great appetizer for parties or family gatherings. All the ingredients to make them come from Trader Joe’s but you could really buy them anywhere (except for the green dragon sauce). You can cut the recipe in half if you don’t want to make so many rolls.

GREEN DRAGON CHICKEN ROLLS

• 1 bag (1 lb. 12 oz.) frozen breaded chicken
• 8 slices bacon, cooked until crisp, then crumbled
• 1 cup sour cream, plus extra to use as “glue”
• 2 – 8 Tbsp. Trader Joe’s Green Dragon hot sauce
• ½ small head of lettuce, very thinly sliced
• 1 pkg. (6 sheets) lavash flatbread

1. Bake breaded chicken according to package directions.
2. Let cool completely, then chop into little pieces.
3. In a small bowl, combine sour cream and green dragon sauce. Start with two tablespoons green dragon sauce and keep adding, a tablespoon at a time, till it’s as hot as you like. Three tablespoons is plenty hot for me.
4. Toss chopped chicken, crumbled bacon, sour cream mixture, and lettuce together in a large bowl.
5. Place a sheet of lavash bread down on your work surface.
6. Mound 1/6 of chicken mixture down one long edge of lavash.
7. Smear about an inch wide of sour cream along opposite edge. This acts as the “glue” to seal the roll closed.
8. Roll lavash up tightly beginning at side with chicken mixture and ending at side with sour cream, pressing edge to seal well.
9. Repeat with remaining lavash and chicken mixture.
10. Wrap each roll in plastic wrap and store in refrigerator until ready to use.
11. Slice into 3/4-inch thick slices and serve.

NOTE:  If you can’t get Green Dragon sauce, substitute some other hot sauce like Sriracha. You can also substitute tortillas for the lavash.

Advertisement

Wedge Salad with Bacon Buttermilk Dressing

Wedge Salad is a typical salad served at classic American steak houses as a starter to your meal. It’s traditionally served with crumbled blue cheese and blue cheese dressing, but blue cheese isn’t one of my kids’ favorite cheeses. I love wedge salad, though, so here’s a version I make for them without any blue cheese in it. If you find you’re really missing the blue cheese flavor, go ahead and sprinkle some crumbled blue cheese on your salad. It’s all good!

WEDGE SALAD

(Makes 4 servings)

• 1 small head iceberg lettuce
• 6 slices of bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 2 slices sturdy white bread, crusts removed
• 3 Tbsp. butter or margarine
• garlic salt, to taste (optional)
• 1 small tomato, chopped
• 1/4 small red onion, very thinly sliced
• chives, minced (for garnish)

1. Cut the lettuce into 4 wedges and place them in the refrigerator to keep cold until ready to use.
2. Fry the bacon until crisp, then transfer to paper towels to drain.
3. Dice the white bread into small cubes, a little less than a half-inch big.
4. Melt butter or margarine in a skillet and fry bread cubes, stirring often, until golden and crispy.
5. Season bread cubes with garlic salt to taste, if desired.
6. Assemble the salad by placing one wedge of lettuce on each of 4 salad plates.
7. Pour some dressing over each wedge.
8. Top with a little tomato, onion, bacon, and croutons.
9. Garnish with minced chives, if desired.

BACON BUTTERMILK DRESSING

• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1/3 cup mayonnaise
• 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 2 tsp. Dijon mustard
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
• 4 slices bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled

1. Place all ingredients into bowl of a food processor and process until combined.
2. Chill until ready to serve.

NOTE:  Dressing can be made up to 2 days in advance and kept chilled in the fridge.

Santa Fe Chopped Salad with Cilantro Citrus Vinaigrette

I always think of my daughter, Tissi, when I make this salad. Tissi and a friend of hers were discussing vegetarianism one day and he made her a bet that she couldn’t go without eating meat for more than 2 days. Tissi decided to take him up on it and she won the bet! The funny thing is, while she was trying to be all vegetarian in order to win, she realized she didn’t miss meat at all! So after her 2 days were up, she decided to just go on eating the way she was and she became a vegetarian for real! Has been for a couple of years now. Isn’t that funny? Anyway, when I make this salad and see all the colorful rows of veggies, I always think of my Tissi. You wouldn’t miss meat either when faced with a healthy, delicious salad like this one!

That being said, the “Tex-Mex” flavor of this salad makes it a great accompaniment to barbecued meat or chicken. It’s delicious alongside a pulled pork sandwich or some tender slices of smoked beef brisket. Sometimes I add crumbled bacon to it which makes it extra yummy in my book. After all, everything is better with bacon, right? (As you might have guessed, I’m not a vegetarian.) If you’re looking for a heartier, more filling salad that could stand alone as a light lunch or brunch dish, you could toss in some chopped grilled chicken.

The dressing for this salad has very little oil which makes it less fattening than other dressings, albeit rather thin. If you want a thicker, creamier dressing, try whisking in a half cup of plain greek yogurt.

SANTA FE CHOPPED SALAD

• 1 large head romaine lettuce or 2 romaine hearts, washed and roughly chopped
• 2 small (2.25 oz.) cans sliced black olives, drained
• 1 avocado, peeled, pitted and diced
• 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
• 1 can (15.25 oz.) whole kernel corn, drained
• 1½ cups loosely packed fresh cilantro leaves, roughly chopped
• 1 cup tortilla strips
• 1 can (15 oz.) black beans, rinsed and drained
• half of a small red onion, halved and thinly sliced

1. Place chopped lettuce in a bowl.
2. Arrange remaining ingredients in rows on top of lettuce.
3. Just before serving, drizzle with Cilantro Citrus Vinaigrette.
4. Toss and serve.

CILANTRO CITRUS VINAIGRETTE

• 1 cup fresh cilantro, loosely packed
• ¼ cup orange juice
• juice from 2 limes (about 3½ – 4 Tbsp.)
• 2 Tbsp. honey or agave nectar
• ¼ tsp. ground cumin
• ¼ tsp. salt
• ⅛ tsp. freshly-ground black pepper
• ¼ cup olive oil (can substitute canola oil)

1. Place cilantro, orange juice, lime juice, honey, cumin, salt and pepper in bowl of food processor or blender and pulse until well-combined.
2. Then gradually stream in the oil while processing until oil is completely incorporated. Dressing is thin and light.

BLT Salad

My friend, Pooh, told me about this salad that she and her daughter tried making for dinner one night. It was from a Williams Sonoma cookbook and it sounded really good so I decided that I would try it, too. The salad ingredients were delicious, but I didn’t care too much for the dressing so I altered it to come up with a creamy dressing that was more to my liking. The family liked it better with my dressing, too.

BLT SALAD
(Serves 4)

• 1 head romaine lettuce, chopped
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
• 8 slices bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 2 cups croutons, homemade or store bought
• ½ cup mayonnaise
• 2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
• 2 Tbsp. grated parmesan cheese
• 1 large garlic clove, minced
• 1 tsp. sugar
• ¼ tsp. salt
• ¼ tsp. pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
2. Spread out the bacon pieces on a rimmed baking sheet.
3. Bake the bacon pieces until crisp, about 12-15 minutes.
4. When the bacon pieces are ready, remove them from the oven and transfer to paper towels to drain and cool.
5. Make the dressing by combining mayonnaise, lemon juice, parmesan cheese, garlic, sugar, salt, and pepper in a bowl, and blending until well-combined.
6. Place the lettuce, tomatoes, bacon, and croutons into a large salad bowl.
7. Drizzle with dressing and toss to mix well.
8. Serve immediately.

VARIATION:  You could make a BLTA salad, as pictured below, by adding one avocado to the recipe. Cut the avocado into cubes, squeeze a little lemon juice over the cubes to keep them from darkening, and then toss the avocado into your salad. Yum!

[Adapted from Williams-Sonoma Cooking Together, by Erin & Tatum Quon (Oxmoor House, 2009)]

Classic Coleslaw

A friend of mine told me that she read somewhere that the way to keep your coleslaw salad from becoming runny and water-logged is to toss your shredded cabbage in a colander with 1/2 cup sugar and 1/4 cup salt, and let it sit for about 5 minutes. This is supposed to draw the excess moisture out of the cabbage. Then you give it a really good rinse under cold running water and spin it in a salad spinner to dry well. The cabbage stays nice and crisp and the salad doesn’t end up swimming in a bowl of soupy dressing.

Sounds totally plausible, doesn’t it? So I decided to give it the old college try. Well, all I can say is…….. don’t go off and start doing something else so you forget about your cabbage and it ends up sitting in the sugar/salt mix for about 40 minutes instead of the 5 it was supposed to…….. not unless you want to end up with a colander of limp, shrunken, gray-green little strings. Yikes! Anyway, if someone else out there tries it and it works, you’ll have to tell me all about it. Then maybe I’ll try it again. For now, I’m sticking to making coleslaw the old-fashioned way.

CLASSIC COLESLAW

• ½ head green cabbage, sliced thin
• ½ head red cabbage, sliced thin
• 2 medium carrots, peeled and julienned
• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 3 Tbsp. cider vinegar
• 3 Tbsp. sugar
• 1 tsp. celery salt
• ½ tsp. pepper
• 2-3 green onions, chopped (optional)

1. Place shredded cabbage and carrots into a salad bowl. If you’re short on time, you can substitute 2 (16-oz.) bags pre-shredded coleslaw mix.
2. Whisk remaining ingredients together in another bowl.
3. Pour dressing over the cabbage, tossing to combine well.
4. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving.

NOTE:  If you don’t like red cabbage, you can omit it and use one whole head of green cabbage instead. Also, if you don’t have celery salt, you could substitute 1 tsp. salt plus ½ tsp. celery seeds in its place.