After my family has been eating my simple chicken salad from Costco rotisserie chicken for many months, I needed to come up with a new and fresh way of using the leftover chicken breasts. There is a famous dish from the Sichuan province in China called 棒棒雞 (b’ang b’ang ji) which literally translates into “pounded” chicken. The reason for the Chinese name is because they use a baton to pound the chicken after cooking to tenderize the tougher breast meat. Phonetically, it also translates into awesome awesome chicken. Yes, awesome is repeated twice!
So I need to find out just how awesome this chicken can be – especially if I’m using leftover Costco chicken breast. This Sichuan chicken salad with spicy sesame dressing recipe will employ this particular technique as well. What makes this dish delicious is the crisp cucumber mixed with tender chicken breast and dressed in a rich sesame paste sauce that is sweet, tangy, and numbingly spicy all at the same time. My mouth waters just thinking about this dish again.
Ingredients
- 1 full chicken breast
- 1 cucumber
Sesame Dressing
- ½ cup sesame paste
- ¼ cup sugar
- ¼ cup sesame oil
- ½ cup chicken broth
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- 2 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1 tbsp crushed garlic
Chili Oil
- ¼ cup chili oil
- 1 tbsp finely ground Sichuan peppercorn
Garnish
- shredded green onion
- black or white sesame seeds
The sesame dressing amounts can be adjusted to taste. If you like it more sour, add more vinegar, if you like it sweeter, add more sugar. If you want a stronger sesame flavor, add more paste. Pro Tip: I separate out the chili oil so everyone can cater their dish based on their spice preference as people have different tolerance levels.
Directions
Similar to the simple chicken salad recipe, this Sichuan chicken salad with spicy sesame dressing recipe requires cooked chicken breast. If you don’t have chicken breast handy, you can put the breast in a low boiling water for 5 minutes and then simmer for another 10-15 minutes until cooked. Pro Tip: Cooking the chicken at low heat allows meat to stay tender and juicy. 
Once the chicken has cooled, pound the chicken gently with a meat tenderizer or a rolling pin to loosen the strands of protein in the breast meat. Use your hands (not the knife), shred the chicken breast meat. Shredding with hand allows the meat to have more nooks and crevices to soak up the dressing.
Shred the cucumber and place them as the bed of the dish. Then put the shredded chicken breast on top. And then some shredded green onions.
For the sesame dressing, just mixed everything together until the sesame paste is incorporated and the sugar has dissolved. Pro Tip: Mix the sugar into the vinegar to dissolve first. The sesame paste takes a bit to dissolve but the chicken broth should help. Add the sesame dressing to the chicken salad.
In order to release the aroma of the Sichuan peppercorn, we need to first warm up the chili oil (below smoking point) then toss in the finely ground peppercorn for about 30 seconds and then turn off the heat. Drizzle the chili oil on the salad to taste. Keep in mind that peppercorns produce not only heat but also numbing tingling sensation. Go gently if this is your first time using Sichuan peppercorns.
Garnish with some more shredded green onions and sesame seeds. Serve as a wonderful appetizer on a hot summer day. 
- 1 full cooked chicken breast
- 1 cucumber
- ½ cup sesame paste
- ¼ cup sugar
- ¼ cup sesame oil
- ½ cup chicken broth
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- 2 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1 tbsp crushed garlic
- ¼ cup chili oil
- 1 tbsp finely ground sichuan peppercorn
- shredded green onion
- black or white sesame seeds
- Gently pound chicken breast with meat tenderizer or a baton
- Shred the chicken by hand
- Shred cucumbers and place on the bottom of dish
- Mix sesame dressing, ensure all the sesame paste is incorporated into the sauce and the sugar has dissolved
- Heat the chili oil and add in the peppercorn to allow flavor to impart for about 30 seconds and turn off heat
- Add sesame dressing and drizzle chili oil to taste
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