Hairy Bikers Bang Bang Chicken Salad

This Hairy Bikers bang bang chicken salad griddles five-spice chicken breasts, then lays them over crunchy raw vegetables with a peanut and coconut sauce. Plus Chicken & Egg has it serving 4, while my own estimate puts it at about 385 calories and 50 minutes.

Starter, main or buffet dish, Si and Dave say it works as all three, and they rate it “one of the best salads ever”. But there is no lettuce in it, since Chinese cabbage, baby corn, asparagus tips, radishes and red pepper do the work.

The step that matters is spooning 2 or 3 tablespoons of sauce into a separate bowl before you brush the raw chicken. So that’s their own safety step, because the rest of the sauce goes straight over the salad and on to the table.

Hairy Bikers Bang Bang Chicken Salad

Author: Alex Saidani Cooking Method:Grilling Cuisine:British Chinese Courses:Dinner

Difficulty:BeginnerPrep time: 25 minutesCook time: 25 minutesRest time: minutesTotal time: 50 minutesServings:4 servingsCalories:385 kcal Best Season:Summer

Description

Butterflied chicken soaks up soy, garlic, ginger, sesame oil and five-spice while a shallot, chilli and crunchy peanut butter sauce simmers until syrupy. Then the chicken is charred on a very hot griddle and sliced over shredded cabbage, matchstick carrot and radishes.

Ingredients

For the chicken

• 2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 15g root ginger, grated
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• ½ tsp Chinese five-spice powder
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the sauce

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 shallots, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed or grated
• 15g root ginger, grated
• 2 red chillies, deseeded if you like, finely chopped
• 200ml chicken stock
• 150ml coconut milk
• 50g crunchy peanut butter
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
• 1 tsp palm sugar or light soft brown sugar
• juice of ½ lime

For the salad

• 1 Chinese cabbage
• 1 large carrot
• 50g radishes
• 1 red pepper
• 100g baby corn
• 100g asparagus tips
• 6 spring onions

To serve

• 2 or 3 red chillies, sliced into rounds
• small bunch of fresh coriander

Instructions

1. Marinate the chicken: Butterfly the chicken breasts, cut them in half and season with salt and pepper. Then mix the soy sauce, garlic, ginger, sesame oil and five-spice, pour it over the chicken and massage it in while you make the sauce.
2. Start the sauce: Heat the oil in a frying pan and cook the shallots over a medium heat for a few minutes until golden brown. Then add the garlic, ginger and chillies and cook for a couple more minutes.
3. Simmer the sauce: Add the stock, coconut milk and peanut butter, then the soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sugar and lime juice. Simmer until the sauce is reduced and syrupy, then set it aside.
4. Griddle the chicken: Heat a griddle until very hot, and spoon 2 or 3 tbsp of the sauce into a separate bowl. Then brush the chicken with it and cook for 3 to 4 minutes a side. And keep basting from that bowl until it has black char lines and a light glaze.
5. Prepare the salad: Shred the cabbage, cut the carrot and radishes into matchsticks and slice the pepper into thin strips. Then quarter the baby corn, cut the asparagus diagonally into short pieces and shred the spring onions.
6. Assemble: Arrange the salad on a platter, then slice the chicken into strips and let it cool a little before adding it. Drizzle over some of the remaining sauce, scatter with sliced chillies and coriander, and serve the rest of the sauce at the table.

FAQs

Is bang bang chicken served hot or cold?

The chicken goes on warm, since the recipe only lets the strips cool a little before they meet the salad. But every vegetable is raw, including the baby corn and asparagus tips, so it eats like a warm chicken salad.

For leftovers, I would keep the chicken and sauce apart from the vegetables and eat them within 2 days. That is my advice rather than theirs, because dressed cabbage goes limp.

How spicy is it?

There are two red chillies in the sauce, which they say you can deseed if you like. Then 2 or 3 more go over the top in rounds, so leaving those off is the easiest way to keep it mild.

How hot should the griddle be?

The recipe calls for a very hot griddle, and it says the chicken should have black char lines and look lightly glazed. And in their griddled chicken salad, also in Chicken & Egg, they describe the right heat as too hot to hold your hand over.

Both recipes use butterflied breasts at 3 to 4 minutes a side, so the thinner, even pieces cook through quickly.

Is there a bang bang turkey version?

Yes, their BBC Food recipes include a bang bang turkey that also serves 4. But I have worked from the Chicken & Egg chicken salad here, because that is the version printed in their book.

What other peanut or chicken dishes do they have?

Chicken & Egg also has an African peanut and chicken stew, with 200g of smooth peanut butter whisked into 600ml of stock alongside sweet potato. And they say it takes the chicken and peanut pairing from satay “a stage further”.

For a different chicken salad, their British Classics Caesar salad is worth a look, while their velveted chicken stir fry also uses baby corn. Then for a takeaway-style dinner, try this Chinese chicken curry with star anise, adapted from their Asian Adventure beef curry.