Houston's Grilled Chicken Salad

An abundance of ailments have swept through the Hock household in the past few weeks. There have been fevers (JR and CJ), colds (everyone), stomach aches, ear infections (CJ), and even a torn ear drum (King Hock, poor poor King Hock). The most recent ailment happened to CJ, my 3 year old, aka Prince Hock #2.

Yesterday afternoon, I went through the carpool line as usual to pick him up from camp, and instead of him walking out to my car, his counselor carried him. She explained that he hurt his arm, and wouldn't move it. Well, me being the doctor that I am, I took one look and knew it was out of socket. It had happened to JR one time.

We hurried over to the pediatrician, and he popped it back in to place. CJ was so brave, I was very proud. I told him I would reward him by taking him to pick out a toy, and he decided we should go to Wal Mart.

So, here we are moseying around the toy aisles of Wal Mart for what seemed like an hour. This was a tough decision picking out a toy. CJ finally settled on a Power Ranger, but he wanted to have just one more look up and down each of the aisles. That's when the $40 Barbie Pool set caught his eye. I tried to talk him out of it, but he wouldn't budge. Finally, we settled on a Ken wearing a bathing suit and a smaller pool.

He proudly carried the Ken and pool around the store, and was very excited. Then, out of nowhere he spots a picture of Captain America. "Mommmmmyyyyy, loooooook! I want a Captain America costume!" Since, Wal Mart doesn't carry costumes year round, I stood there and ordered it from Amazon on my phone. "Ok, it's coming in 2 days," I told him.

I felt bad that he just went through this whole ordeal and would have to wait 2 days for a reward, so I still bought him the Ken just without the pool.

As we drove home from Wal Mart, we had an in depth conversation about his new toy. When I referred to it as his Barbie, I corrected myself and called it his Ken Doll, and he goes, "Mommy, I have a swim teacher at camp named Kendall."

I said, "Her name is Kendall like your Barbie?" He said, "Yes like my Barnie!"

So, I guess that's where he came up with the name Barnie Kendall because from then on he referred to his new toy as Barnie Kendall. He loved it so much, that he decided to sleep with it in his bed.

Last night at 3 A.M. I hear screaming, "Daddy, Mommy, I can't find Barnie Kendall." I sent King Hock up to help him. We were just about to fall back asleep, and then there was more screaming, "Daddy, Mommy, I can't find Barnie Kendall's sunglasses."

Normally, King Hock and I get irritated when he wakes us up in the middle of the night (which happens very often), but last night we were laughing hysterically.

CJ comes down stairs this morning carrying his Barbie and says, "Good morning Mommy, I told you I shouldn't sleep with Barnie Kendall, his bathing suit keeps falling off, can you put it back on please?"

Now, CJ is tucked all nicely in his bed with Barnie Kendall, let's hope we don't have a repeat of last night.

Now onto our dinner. I offered King Hock to make whatever he wanted for dinner tonight, and challenged me to make the Grilled Chicken Salad from Houston's. He used to adore it in his pre kosher days.

The recipe I came up with was spot on, it was unbelievable.

Here it is:

Houston's Grilled Chicken Salad

Grilled Chicken, marinated and grilled to your liking, then very thinly sliced
Tortilla Strips, recipe below
Honey Dijon Dressing, recipe below
Peanut Sauce, recipe below
1 package Mixed Greens
Carrots, cut into matchsticks (I used precut bagged type)
1 ear fresh corn, shucked
6 leaves Napa Cabbage, thinly sliced

To prepare the salad:

Place the mixed greens, carrots, corn, Napa cabbage, grilled chicken, and tortilla strips in a large bowl. Toss with the Honey Dijon Dressing. Place on your serving plate, and drizzle with the peanut sauce. Alternately place the peanut sauce in a large ziploc, snip off a very small part of the corner and squeeze out over the salad.

Tortilla Strips

6 corn tortillas
2 t. vegetable oil
Kosher Salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cover a baking sheet with parchment. Brush the tortillas with oil. Stack them, and cut into very thin long strips. Sprinkle with kosher salt. Bake for 10-15 minutes, until crisp and starting to brown.

Honey Dijon Dressing

1/4 C. red wine vinegar
1/3 C. vegetable oil
2 T. dijon mustard
1/2 fresh small lime, juiced
1 t. sesame oil
1/4 C. honey
1 t. dried minced onion
1/4 t. pepper
pinch salt
1-2 T. fresh cilantro chopped
1-2 T. red bell pepper, very finely diced

In a bowl use an immersion blender and blend together all of the above except for the cilantro and red bell pepper, blend until emulsified. Add the cilantro and red bell pepper, and place in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

Peanut Sauce

1/4 C. peanut butter
1 t. garlic powder
4 t. soy sauce
4 t. rice wine vinegar
4 t. brown sugar, packed
2 t. sesame oil

Use an immersion blender and mix together the above ingredients until smooth.

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Hopefully Barnie Kendall won't pull that Toy Story stunt on us tonight, and go playing in the middle of the night, or lose his sunglasses.

Have a great night!
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