Chicken pancetta sesame-miso salad
I had no idea what miso was until a few years ago. I thought miso was just “miso soup” that came with every meal at a sushi joint. Then one day I was scouring the shelves at my local grocery store and saw these little containers of miso. Looked interesting so I bought one. And then it languished in my fridge for way too long because I didn’t really know what to do with it. One day I threw it in with some potatoes and 🤯 AMAZING. Basically, miso = salty fermented flavour bomb. So I throw it into lots of things now. Tonight’s recipe is a go-to. It’s a cheat really, all I have to cook is the bacon 🙄. It’s the perfect “f***, it’s Thursday, I’m tired, the fridge is sparse, and I don’t want to cook” dinner.
If you want to geek out a bit - here’s a great overview of miso from Bon Appétit.
Tonight’s takes:
Husband: “SO GOOD. This dressing - I want to dip everything in it.”
Helen (5 1/2 years old): “Really good. Except for this - [points to pancetta] - I don’t like this.”
Hector (3 years old): “I love this mama. I love this dinner.” He licked the extra dressing off his plate like an animal.
Recipe (loosely followed):
What I used:
8 slices pancetta
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp tahini
1 tbsp red miso
2 tsp fish sauce
juice from 1.5 lemons
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp mayonnaise
3/4 cup canola oil
1 cm chunk ginger, grated
1 rotisserie chicken - fresh today from the grocery store
1 head red leaf lettuce
What I did:
Fried pancetta over medium heat until crispy.
Combined all the dressing ingredients into mini blender. I’m pretty loose with my teaspoon and tablespoon measurements (as in I mostly eyeballed it). Added a bit of pancetta fat from frying pan for good measure. Blended.
Pulled rotisserie chicken apart. Discarded most of the skin. Someone dipped in before I got going 🤔
Washed and sliced lettuce.
Served! Super lazy service tonight - you had to build your own salad at the table.
Next time
I ended up with a fair amount of extra dressing. But all the lettuce and most of the chicken was eaten. Next time I’d add cucumber and/or blanched green beans to add more veg and more crunch to it.
Long live miso.
😋😋😋
-Ellisa