Korean Chicken Salad (Dak Nangchae)

Ingredients

• 2 chicken breasts (boneless & skinless)
• 1 inch ginger (thinly sliced)
• 1 Korean cucumber or English cucumber (seeded and thinly sliced)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 medium white onion (thinly sliced)
• 1 sweet red apple (thinly sliced)
• 4 tsp Korean mustard (yeongeoja) (See notes below for substitute)
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp Korean plum extract (maeshil cheong) (or apple juice)
• 2 tsp sweet rice wine (mirim)
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds (divided)

Instructions

1. 1

   Put a few thin slices of ginger in a pot of water. Bring to boil. Add the chicken breasts, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes.

2. 2

   Remove the pot from heat, and leave chicken breast to stand with lid on for 20 minutes or longer. Shred the chicken breast.

3. 3

   Meanwhile, soak onion slices in cold water for 5 minutes, then drain; set aside.

4. 4

   Slice cucumber in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. Slice the cucumber in thin diagonal slices. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of salt on the cucumber slices and toss. Let sit for 5 minutes, then gently squeeze out the excess moisture from cucumber.

5. 5

   In a small mortar, roughly grind up toasted whole sesame seeds with a pestle. Do not grind the sesame seeds too finely. You will want them coarsely crushed.

6. 6

   In a small mixing bowl, combine Korean mustard paste, soy sauce, rice vinegar, honey, salt, Korean plum extract, rice wine, sesame oil and 1-1/2 tablespoon of crushed sesame seeds; mix well.

7. 7

   Put the salad in a serving dish and garnish with the remaining crushed sesame seeds. Serve immediately or chill in the refrigerator up to 30 minutes.