5 Spice Caramelized Chicken Recipe with Coconut Mango Rice Noodle Salad

Summer has finally hit in beautiful Vancouver, BC. With the long, beautiful days, our family wants to get as much outdoor time as possible. Planning ahead for dinner makes it easy to get home from work, get dinner in little (and big) bellies and get out the door again to go to the park and make the most of the nice weather. 

Today I thought that I would share with you my Chinese 5 Spice Caramelized Chicken with Mango Coconut Glass Noodle Salad. I’ve loved asian cuisine for as long as I can remember, but being a Blue Dragon brand ambassador has encouraged me to start exploring new flavor profiles.  The Mango Coconut Glass Noodle Salad has beautiful, fresh summer flavors and the Chinese 5 Spice Caramelized Chicken is sweet (so the kiddos will like it) but also has a beautiful flavor profile from the Chinese 5 spice. Make the chicken, dressing and noodles ahead of time so that you can throw this dish together quickly when you get home from work. 

Chinese 5 Spice Caramelized Chicken with Mango Coconut Glass Noodle Salad

Ingredients:

Coconut Dressing:

• 1/2 can Blue Dragon Coconut Milk
• 1 tablespoon Blue Dragon Green Curry Paste
• 1 tablespoon minced ginger
• Juice of 1/2 a lime
• Zest of 1 lime
• 1 clove minced garlic
• 1/2 tablespoon agave nectar or honey
• 1/2 tablespoon Blue Dragon sesame oil

Mango Salad:

• 1 package of Blue Dragon rice noodles cooked per instructions on the package
• 1 mango peeled, pitted and thinly sliced
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded and thinly sliced
• fresh cilantro to sprinkle on top- optional (I love cilantro, the more the better. I put about a tablespoon of fresh cilantro on the top of my salad. If you don’t like cilantro, omit it. If you are new to cilantro put a little bit on and add more if you like the flavor.)

Chicken:

• 2 chicken breasts, cut into thin slices
• 1/2 cup corn starch
• 1 tablespoon of Chinese 5 spice
• 1 teaspoon of clove
• 1 tablespoon of ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup of cashews
• 1 cup of sugar
• 2 cups plus 1 cup of water
• Oil

Instructions Coconut Dressing:

• Mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl, stir well and stick in the refrigerator. 

Instructions Chinese 5 Spice Caramelized Chicken:

• Combine corn starch and spices in a large plastic ziploc bag. Shake to combine.
• Drop thinly sliced chicken into the ziploc bag. Shake to coat. Remove chicken from bowl and shake off excess coating.
• In a large frying pan, pan fry the chicken in small batches. Set aside on a plate once done cooking. 
• Meanwhile, put 1 cup of sugar and 2 cups of water in a large saucepan over medium heat. Stir until sugar dissolves. Once the sugar dissolves and the liquid starts to bubble do not use the spoon again. Watch closely for the liquid to start to caramelize. You want the liquid to turn a light nutty brown (but caramel can burn quickly so keep a careful eye on it). Pick up the sauce pan and swish the liquid around every minute or so instead of stirring. When your caramel sauce is ready, remove from heat.
• Pour chicken and cashews into the saucepan with the caramel sauce. Your caramel is going to turn into toffee at this point and you are going to think “What did this woman do to me?” Stir as best as possible then add 1 cup of water and put back on heat. Stir. Let the chicken and liquid bubble away and thicken for 10 minutes.

Instructions for salad:

• Cook your rice noodles as per instructions on package. Rinse with cold water and drain once done. 
• Put noodles in a bowl and add sliced mango and red pepper.
• Pour a bit of salad dressing on top and toss until salad is well coated.

Assembly:

• Put salad on the plate. 
• Put chicken on top using a slotted spoon to drain off excess liquid.
• Garnish with cilantro
• Serve and enjoy!

Want to experiment with your own Blue Dragon flavors? Blue Dragon is giving 5 lucky Facebook fans a gift basket full of Blue Dragon products. Enter here!

Tell me… What is your favorite summertime dish? Do you love experimenting with different exotic flavors?

“Disclosure:I am part of the Blue Dragon Ambassador program with Mom Central Canada and Ireceive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinionson this blog are my own.”