Asian Chicken Salad

Jenifer loves to make this salad with the boys. If there's time, she'll throw it together a few hours ahead of dinner, but she makes sure to add the herbs at the last minute or they lose the wonderful aromatic qualities that they bring to the salad in the first place. Serve more herbs in bowls for everyone to add as they like.

Ingredients

• 1 head cabbage, thinly sliced

• 4 3-4 ounce packages dried Ramen noodles, seasoning removed, broken into bite-sized pieces

• 2 cups or so diced cooked chicken

• 1/4 cup hoisin sauce

• 3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

• 3 tablespoons soy sauce

• 1 tablespoon fish sauce

• 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil

• 1 teaspoon sambal chili paste

• 2 pinches sugar

• 1 1-inch piece ginger, peeled and grated

• 6 green onions, thinly sliced

• 1/4 cup peanuts, toasted

• Leaves from 1 bunch fresh basil, sliced

• Leaves from 1/2 bunch fresh cilantro, sliced

• Leaves from 1 bunch fresh mint, sliced

Instructions

1. Mix together the cabbage, Ramen noodles, and diced chicken in a large bowl. Hands are welcome.

2. In a small bowl or jar, mix the hoisin sauce, vinegar, soy sauce, fish sauce, sesame oil, sambal chili, sugar, ginger, and green onions. Pour over the cabbage mixture and toss really well to coat all the ingredients. You can do this a few hours ahead so that the seasoned sauce will moisten the dried noodles.

3. Just before serving, sprinkle the salad with the peanuts and some of the basil, cilantro, and mint. Have bowls of the herbs on the table so everybody can add what they like.