Green Options

For this post I am going to express one of my favorite simple recipes, and a very healthy one at that–Grilled Chicken Salad.

Now your probably thinking, this is probably too simple to be expressed on a Blog.  Well I disagree.  If a little extra time is spent with preparation, this can be one of those great easy meals, that you can remake again and again.  This meal is such a staple that in our house, we designate one night a week as Grilled Chicken Salad Night.

In order to make up this meal, you need to grab some boneless chicken fillets from your local grocer’s freezer.  Simply grill up the chicken over a charcoal or propane grill until the chicken is cooked through and crisp, but not burned. While cooking, cover the chicken with basic seasoning to improve taste. For my super delicious chicken salad, usually a little well done on the chicken makes for a tastier meal.

If you lack the potential to grill, chicken actually bakes well in the oven under steady supervision of flipping the chicken to ensure the chicken is baked all the way through.  To bake it use the same formula as you did for grilling, but just expect a little more production time.  In either case, slicing open the raw chicken at various parts will help cook the bird and let the seasoning soak in more.

Many years ago I had the honor and privilege to both attend and actually “sous chef” for several master classes with the late, great Barbara Tropp. For those who don’t know, Barbara Tropp was the chef/owner of China Moon Cafe in San Francisco, a culinary teacher and the author of the best cookbook on Chinese cooking, The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking: Techniques and Recipes. However she was much, much more.

She passed in October 2001 from ovarian cancer far too soon at age 53. She was not only one of the most influential chefs in general and Chinese chef’s specifically, but she was also an inspiration, a role model to male and female cooks, and a teacher of life to anyone who every crossed her path. After her death, celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck said,

Barbara was so petite, but her influence, dedication and knowledge of food made her a giant.

What is the most important thing I learned for this legend? The simplest, tastiest and most used trick in my Chinese repertoire - Fried Rice.