Vietnamese Chicken Salad

There are many versions of this salad, I played around with the ingredients and this is my version. I first made this a couple of years ago when I was having some friends over for lunch, it was a typically hot day in Dubai and this salad was light and refreshing, I served it with Arabic bread not traditional but great all the same.

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

2 large chicken breasts
1/2 Chinese cabbage shredded
2 carrots julienned
100gm snow peas julienned
1 red capsicum cut into thin strips
1 cup bean sprouts
1/2 cup mint leaves
1/2 cup coriander leaves
4tbs fried shallots
2 tbs sesame seeds ( lightly toasted)
Dressing
70 gms light brown sugar
70 ml water
2 cm piece ginger
2 cloves garlic
1 shallot
1 long red chilli
100mls fish sauce
juice of 2 limes

Directions

For the dressing, place the sugar and water in a sauce pan until the sugar has dissolved, remove from the heat and allow to cool. Place remaining dressing ingredients in a food processor and blend for 30 seconds or until you have a fairly smooth paste, add the cooled sugar syrup to the blender and pulse until combined.
Season the chicken with salt and pepper and fry in 2 tbs of oil until cooked, remove and cool. Shred the chicken once it has cooled and combine with the salad ingredients except for the fried shallots. Pour the dressing over the salad and garnish with the fried shallots.
You can add extra chilli and coriander as a garnish if you wish.