Asian Chicken Salad - Healthy Food Tip and Recipe

healthy food tip and recipe
August 15, 2013

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Today's Recipe

If you don't know what to serve for dinner tonight ...

Avoid dry chicken breasts by using our Quick Broil cooking method — it's a great way to retain the moisture and flavor of chicken when you want to include it as part of your Healthiest Way of Eating. Enjoy this tasty recipe and the health benefits that come from it's wealth of health-promoting nutrients.

Asian Chicken Salad

Prep and Cook Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 boneless chicken breasts, skin on
• 5 cups Chinese cabbage, sliced thin
• 1/2 cup shredded carrot
• 1/2 cup minced scallion
• 1/2 cup sliced almonds
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 TBS toasted sesame seeds
• Optional: 2 TBS dried hijiki or arame seaweed, soaked in 1 cup warm water and chopped*
• Dressing
• 2 TBS extra olive oil
• 2 TBS soy sauce
• 1/4 cup rice vinegar
• 3 TBS honey
• pinch red pepper flakes
• salt & white pepper to taste
• *The safety factors regarding sea vegetables, such as hijiki

Directions:

1. Preheat broiler. Place a stainless steel (be sure the handle is also stainless steel) or cast iron skillet in the broiler, about 7 inches from the heat source, to get it very hot. Season chicken with a little salt and pepper.
2. If you are using hijiki or arame place it in a small bowl of hot water to soften for about 10 minutes.
3. While pan is heating, thinly slice cabbage, and shred carrot. Carrot is easily shredded in food processor with shredding blade. Otherwise you can shred it by hand, or slice it thin. Chop cilantro and scallion cabbage and carrot mixture. Add sliced almonds. Squeeze excess water from hijiki, chop if needed, and add to salad.
4. When pan is hot, about 10 minutes, remove from broiler, and place chicken in pan, skin side up, and return to broiler. Cook for about 15 minutes depending on thickness of chicken. This is our Quick Broil cooking method. When done and cool enough to touch, remove skin, and cut into bite-size pieces.
5. Whisk together olive oil, soy sauce, rice vinegar, honey, red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper. Toss with cabbage mixture and chicken. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. (You can buy sesame seeds that are already toasted.)

Serves 4 Printer Friendly Version of Asian Chicken Salad
In-Depth Nutritional Profile for Asian Chicken Salad

Healthy Food Tip

Can you tell me more about the health benefits of the bromelain enzyme found in pineapple including whether it helps with protein digestion?

Bromelain is a complex mixture of substances that can be extracted from the stems and core fruit portion of pineapples. Among dozens of components known to exist in this crude extract, the best-studied components are a group of protein-digesting enzymes (called cysteine proteinases). Originally, researchers believed that these enzymes provided the key health benefits found in bromelain and that these benefits were primarily limited to aid with digestion in the intestinal tract.
Studies have also shown that bromelain has a wide variety of health benefits and that many of these benefits may not be related to the different proteinase enzymes found in the crude extract. Excessive inflammation, excessive coagulation of the blood and clot formation, and certain types of tumor growth may all be reduced by therapeutic doses of bromelain when taken as a dietary supplement. Studies are not available, however, to show these same potential benefits in relationship to normal intake of pineapple within a typical diet.
Bromelain extracts can be obtained from both the fruit core and the stems of pineapple. Potentially important chemical differences appear to exist between extracts obtained from the stem versus the core fruit. However, the practical relevance of these differences is not presently understood. However, most of the laboratory research on bromelain has been conducted using stem-based extracts.
Although healthcare practitioners have reported improved digestion in their patients with an increase in pineapple as a "fruit of choice" within their patients' diets, I haven't seen published studies that document specific changes in digestion following consumption of the whole fruit. However, I've seen plenty of evidence to consider pineapple as a World's Healthiest Food, and I suspect that the extracts obtained from the core fruit will turn out to have some uniquely health-supportive properties, including possible digestion-related benefits.
Referencees:
Gaspani L, Limiroli E, Ferrario P, et al. In vivo and in vitro effects of bromelain on PGE(2) and SP concentrations in the inflammatory exudate in rats. Pharmacology 2002 May;65(2):83-6.
Hatano K, Kojima M, Tanokura M, et al. Primary structure, sequence-specific 1H-NMR assignments and secondary structure in solution of bromelain inhibitor VI from pineapple stem. Eur J Biochem 1995 Sep;232(2):335-43.
Hatano K, Sawano Y, Tanokura M. Structure-function relationship of bromelain isoinhibitors from pineapple stem. Biol Chem 2002 Jul-2002 Aug;383(7-8):1151-6.