Chicken Dish

My best friend, Kat thinks I lived a charmed life. I have met one of my favorite authors, met our favorite basketball team's coach, received emails from more of my favorite authors, had a family house featured on a PBS kids game site, got treated like royalty at a Grizzlies game (that's another long story that I'm dying to tell y'all about but my husband wants me to hold on to it for a little while), and so on and so forth. I tell her, nothing ventured, nothing gained. In each of these situations (well, besides the house thing) I had to put forth some kind of effort to get the desired effect (well, that doesn't really apply to the Grizzlies thing...you'll understand later).

When I sent in a recipe to the magazine Quick Cooking (now called Simple & Delicious), part of the Taste of Home library of cookbooks, I never thought it would get published. And it didn't. For several years. Then, after I had stopped subscribing, I got a letter from the editor telling me my recipe was going to be featured in part of the magazine. Just fuel for Kat's fire. Hee hee hee.

I was thrilled they'd publish it, but when I got the copy they sent me and the letter with it, it explained that they re-worded my introduction, as well as changed some of the recipe to what they wanted it to taste like. I didn't really like that, since that wasn't my complete recipe, but I really didn't care that much. I still make it the way I've made it for years, and my family LOVES it. Oh, and Quick Cooking changed the name to something else, too, because they thought my name was a little...bland.

I simply call it...Chicken Dish. Why? Because that's what my Momma called it. And it will forever be known in my household as simply that. We had it last night. We thought the weather was going to be warmer than it turned out to be, but my men didn't care. They were tired from baseball practice and this stuff hit the spot.

Here's the recipe:

1 (3 oz.) pkg chicken flavor Ramen noodles (do NOT boil!)

1/4 cup oil

3 Tbsp. vinegar

1 Tbsp. sugar

3 Tbsp. sesame seeds

1/4 tsp. salt

dash of pepper

2 c. finely shredded cabbage

1 (6 3/4 oz) can chunk style chicken breast, drained

1/4 cup sliced green onion

3 Tbsp. sliced almonds, toasted

To toast almonds, spread sliced almonds on baking sheet and bake at 350 F for 10 minutes. Let cool completely. For dressing, mix oil, vinegar, sugar, salt, pepper, and seasoning packet from Ramen noodles until seasonings are dissolved. Break up Ramen noodles in a bowl, then add cabbage, chicken, onions, and sesame seeds, mixing until well combined. Stir in dressing, and chill several hours. Mix in almonds just before serving.

If I want leftovers or if I'm feeding a crowd, I triple the recipe by using a full bag of shredded cabbage. It's almost exactly 6 cups. Wal-mart didn't have a head of cabbage (grrrrrr), nor did they have regular shredded cabbage (double grrrrr), so I had to buy the coleslaw shredded cabbage. The extra cabbage and carrots didn't change the flavor that I could tell, but Sound Man said he prefers it the old way. I told him I liked the colors. He was okay with that. I also used leftover Rotisserie chicken we had the night before. Whatever you have on hand works.

It is yum-mm-mm-mmmmm-mmm-m-y. The sweet/sour dressing with the crunchy noodles and almonds is just so delish. Kiddo told me at dinner that he was wishing on the way home from practice that we were having Chicken Dish. His wish came true!