Don't Waste the Shrimp!

Ever since I can remember, Christmas Eve dinner at my house has consisted of tons of finger foods. One of those finger foods always includes shrimp cocktail. For this I like to just buy the precooked frozen shrimps as opposed to getting them raw and cooking them. It just makes it easier at a time when I like to chill out and rest. Unfortunately when you buy them frozen it’s always in a huge bag: which is hard to use later since the shrimps are already cooked. But, as I’ve mentioned before, I hate to waste food.

So I was looking for an interesting way to use shrimp that wouldn’t require them to be hot. Obvi this would have to be a salad, but I couldn’t believe it when I found the recipe for this interesting salad on All Recipes for a Thai shrimp and chicken salad.

Here’s the breakdown:

1/2 cup fresh lime juice

1 1/2 tablespoons fish sauce

2 teaspoons white sugar

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 red grapefruit, peeled and sectioned

2 cups shelled cooked shrimp, cut in half

2 cups shredded chicken breast

1 1/2 cups shredded coconut, unsweetened

3 shallots, thinly sliced

1 red chili pepper, minced

1/2 cup fresh mint leaves

1 1/2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro

Spring mix greens

Sesame sticks

*these aren’t in the recipe, but they were great

I made the shredded chicken by putting two chicken breasts in the slow cooker with equal parts chicken broth and orange juice (cover the chicken) and large pieces of fresh ginger. Cook those on high for about 4 hours and the chicken will shred easily. Let it cool completely. I actually made the chicken the night before and refrigerated it until I needed it.

Make the dressing by whisking together the lime juice, fish sauce, sugar, and garlic in a bowl.

Toss together the sectioned grapefruit, shrimp, chicken breast, coconut, shallots, chili pepper, mint, and cilantro in a large bowl. Drizzle approximately 3/4 of the dressing into the grapefruit mixture and toss to combine. Combine the remaining dressing with the greens in a separate bowl shortly before serving.

Spoon the chicken and shrimp mixture over the greens. Sprinkle a tablespoon of sesame sticks on top.

This was not just really good. This was CRAZY delicious! In fact, I ate it for 3 days in a row left over for lunch! The spicy, acidity, sweet flavor of this salad worked so much better than I thought especially combined with the sesame. Even Josh loved it and usually he sticks with a chicken ceasar salad!