This one 50 calorie addition has upgraded my chicken salad game, and now I'm never going back

Sometimes life deals you a truly awful ingredient and you have to get creative to make it palatable. This happened to me a few weeks ago when the frozen chicken strips I usually buy were out of stock and I had to order them from somewhere else.

You may be thinking “chicken is chicken,” but let me assure you this wasn’t the case.

The new product, while identical in every way to the one I was used to, contained tough, flavorless and lower-quality chicken.

Usually, I just season my chicken breast strips with salt and pepper and let the acidity of the salad dressing and peppery salad greens do the heavy lifting flavor-wise, but this wasn’t going to do the trick with these sad chicken strips.

Faced with the prospect of eating the three kilos I had bought, I had to come up with a solution.

In an attempt to get a satay-style flavor, I threw half a tablespoon of smooth peanut butter in with the meat before putting it in the oven.

It was surprisingly good. The salty, umami, mouth-coating qualities of the nut butter made up for the shortcomings of the chicken and my lunch was saved.

I still cook my chicken with peanut butter, even when getting the good quality stuff now, because it’s such a flavor booster. I’m never going back!

Here’s how to make my peanut butter chicken salad.

Peanut butter chicken salad recipe

Ingredients

• 1½ cups salad greens—I like arugula or watercress
• ¼ cup baby corn, sliced
• ¼ cup radishes, sliced
• 1½ cups frozen ready-cooked chicken breast strips
• ½ cup sugar snap peas or mange-tout
• ½tbsp smooth peanut butter

For the dressing

• 1tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1tsp olive oil
• ½tsp dijon mustard
• ½tbsp lemon juice
• A pinch of salt and pepper

I used Yazio to calculate the nutritional breakdown.

Method

1. Cook your frozen chicken in the oven according to the packet instructions, but before you place the chicken in the oven, spread the peanut butter on top.
2. While your chicken cooks, roughly chop the radishes, baby corn and sugar snap peas/mange-tout. Place these on a bed of greens in the bowl you intend to eat from.
3. To make the dressing, put all the ingredients in an empty jam jar and shake vigorously until combined. I like to drizzle this over the salad base before I add the chicken on top.
4. Once your peanut butter chicken is ready, add this on top of your salad and dig in.

Like this? Then try this doctor’s high-protein peanut-butter chicken recipe for an easy dinner.