Name: Steamed Chicken Salad with Sesame Sauce
Yield: Makes 4 servings
Ingredients: 3-4 green onions; salt and pepper; 2 small cucumbers; 10 oz. boneless chicken thighs with skin; 1 tablespoon sake; 1 teaspoon sesame oil; small piece crushed ginger; 1/4 cup liquid made up from the juices of the cooked chicken (and water if necessary); 4 tablespoons sesame paste; 2 tablespoons soy sauce; 2 tablespoons superfine sugar; 1/2 tablespoon rice vinegar; 2 teaspoons chili paste or to-ban-jan; 2 tablespoons roughly ground sesame seeds; 2 tablespoons finely shredded green onions; 2 teaspoons finely chopped ginger; 2 teaspoons finely chopped garlic

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Steamed Chicken Salad with Sesame SauceTakeharu Hioki

Editor's note: This recipe is excerpted from Harumi's Japanese Cooking , by Harumi Kurihara. To read more about Harumi, click here.

Mushi Dori no Gomadare Salad

Sesame sauce using the juices from cooked chicken is so easy to prepare. This style of dressing with sesame, gomadare, is very common in Japanese cooking and is used for both meat and vegetables. This particular chicken dish makes a lovely appetizer, but it also goes very well with cold noodles.

Ingredients note:

Gomadare — meaning "dressed with sesame sauce" — can be made either with ready-made sesame paste or, more traditionally, by grinding toasted sesame seeds to a rough paste in a suribachi (pestle and mortar). Tahini, a Greek-style sesame paste is a reasonable and easily available substitute, but as it is not made from toasted sesame there is a slight difference in flavor. Unsweetened peanut butter is another possible substitute.

Recipe notes

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