Sweet Chile Thai Dressing

Sometimes I can get a little bored with cooking. I feel like I've tasted everything there is to taste. In my head, I know this is beyond false. There are lots of things I've never tried. I think what's going on is I use the same flavor profiles over and over. Olive oil, garlic, crushed red pepper, basil, etc. I really need to branch out more.

The point is that last night I tried something different. It was (not to brag here) awesome. It was this Thai Crunch Chicken Salad, adapted from a Smells Like Home recipe. I was actually going to blog about it today, but none of the pictures I took last night turned out. They were not appetizing photos. The hubby took the leftovers for lunch today, so I had no second chances either. However, the hubby loved it so much he informed me that he has added this to his list of favorites. High praise from the hubby! So have no fear, I'll be making this salad again and taking much better pictures.

I (unselfishly) offered the hubby the leftovers to take to work for lunch, while I myself woke up today wishing I had those leftovers. Drooling, even. No such luck on leftovers, but if I could have had Scotty beam me over to the hubby's work so I could steal the tupperware... Let's just say the hubby would not have had a lunch today.

This dressing is very versatile. You could use it on a regular salad, to toss vegetables in, as a sauce on meat, or in a stir fry. I used some today for a brown rice lunch bowl. My only advice is that if you are using this as a stir fry sauce, add 1-2 tsp of cornstarch to the dressing before you put it in the pan. It gets a little thin when heated.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup sweet chile sauce
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp peanut butter
1 tbsp brown sugar
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp lime juice

Directions:

1. Combine sweet chile sauce through lime juice in a bowl. Vigorously whisk ingredients together until smooth.
2. Serve!

Recipe adapted from Smells Like Home.