Cold Shredded Vegetables with Chicken
Submitted by chefbubba
Stunning Chinese shredded vegetable and chicken platter with wood ear fungus, egg strips, and a ginger-mustard sesame dressing. A composed cold salad that looks as spectacular as it tastes.
YIELD
6 servingsPREP
10 minCOOK
20 minREADY
30 minThis is the kind of Chinese cold platter that makes you stop and stare before you dare pick up your chopsticks.
Layers of shredded cucumber, carrot, zucchini, daikon radish, leeks, and wood ear fungus get stacked into a colorful mound with shredded chicken and thin egg omelet strips arranged like spokes of a wheel on top.
The dressing brings it all together: ginger juice, dry mustard, soy sauce, sesame oil, and Chinkiang vinegar for that signature sweet-sour-savory balance.
It’s a showpiece cold dish that belongs at a Chinese banquet or a summer dinner party.
Kitchen Tips
- Soak the wood ear fungus for the full hour. Shortcutting this step means chewy, tough pieces that won’t match the tender vegetables.
- Shred everything into uniform matchstick-thin strips. Consistent cuts are what makes this dish look professional and eat well.
- Squeeze the ginger root through a garlic press to extract pure juice. You want the flavor without the fibrous bits.
- Build the layers loosely and let the mound breathe. Packing it too tightly makes it harder to dress evenly.
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare Dressing: In mixing bowl, mix mustard and sugar; gradually add thin soy sauce, blend to avoid lumping.
Squeeze some peeled ginger root through a garlic press to extract juice.
Squeeze juice from tomato. Add other sauce ingredients; stir well and set aside.
Prepare salad: Wash, then soak, wood ear fungus in 3 cups warm water for 1 hour.
Beat egg; fry very thin omelet in large skillet greased with peanut oil.
Fry both sides gently. Set aside to cool.
Trim leeks, green onions, zucchini, carrots and white radish.
Cut ends off cucumber, but don`t peel.
Peel carrots and radish. Shred vegetables with shredder or cleaver.
Wash tomatoes and cut each into eighths.
Shred chicken with fingers.
Thinly slice omelet into strips. Pour boiling water over fungus and drain.
Cut out hard center and cut floppy ears into thin strips.
Finish: Layer shredded vegetables in center of serving plate, mounding slightly as you build layers of cucumber, carrot, chicken, fungus, zucchini, egg, leeks, radish, green onion and so on, ending with cucumber.
Arrange tomatoe wedge around outer edge.
Working from center of vegetable mound, arrange egg strips like spokes of a wheel.
Add dressing and serve.
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