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Chicken and Mango Soba Salad With Peanut Dressing
![Chicken and Mango Soba Salad With Peanut Dressing](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2019/05/09/dining/ss-soba-salad/ss-soba-salad-articleLarge.jpg?width=1280&quality=75&auto=webp)
- Total Time
- 25 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- ½cup smooth peanut butter, natural or regular
- ¼cup hot water
- 3tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
- 2tablespoons rice wine vinegar
- 1tablespoon sesame oil
- 1tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger
- 1tablespoon lime juice (from 1 lime)
- ½teaspoon Sriracha or other hot sauce
- Kosher salt and black pepper
- ½teaspoon granulated sugar (optional)
- 10ounces sugar snap peas (about 2 cups)
- 8ounces soba noodles
- 2cups shredded cooked chicken
- 1small or ½ large mango, peeled and thinly sliced
- 2mini cucumbers, thinly sliced (or ½ English cucumber)
- 1cup loosely packed fresh cilantro leaves
- 2Fresno chiles, thinly sliced
Preparation
- Step 1
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. In a medium bowl, whisk peanut butter, hot water, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, ginger, lime juice and Sriracha until smooth. Season to taste with salt. Add sugar, if using, and stir. Set aside.
- Step 2
Drop the snap peas into the boiling water and cook until they just turn bright green, about 30 seconds. Using a mesh strainer or a spider (leave the water in the pot), transfer to a colander and rinse under cold water until cool. Drain and slice each pea lengthwise into 2 or 3 pieces. Set aside.
- Step 3
Return water to a boil and cook soba noodles according to package instructions. Drain and rinse under cold water until cool (if noodles get sticky, rinse again with cool water).
- Step 4
In a large serving bowl, toss noodles with the chicken, mango and peanut dressing. Add two-thirds of the snap peas, cucumbers, cilantro and chiles, reserving the rest for garnish. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Step 5
When ready to serve, top with remaining snap peas, cucumbers, cilantro and chiles and serve immediately.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
I am vegetarian, so I immures the chicken, but this turned out great! I couldn’t find the right Chile’s so I used seeded jalapeños instead and then added some sliced red bell pepper to compensate for color. It was fantastic. Would definitely make again.
Wonderful! Mango pairs so well with the peanut dressing. I added sliced green onions, used tiny Persian cuke and lime wedges to squeeze. Lately I've been buying 100% buckwheat soba Eden Selected brand at Whole Foods. It's really much tastier, better texture than regular soba which contains wheat. Package says cook time 7 - 8 minutes, but it will be mush, I cook for 6 and it's perfect. This salad would also be good with small pink shrimp (51-60 count/pound).
Made it vegan with fake chicken. Mango is lost in the peanut butter sauce so use a ton of mango (at least three). Would double the Sriracha which also gets lost. Cilantro is a must!
100% buckwheat soba is a great tip... gluten free!
Agree with others: too bland. Doubled soy, ginger, lime juice, added garlic, hot pepper flakes, lime zest, and buckwheat honey. Next time I’ll sauce noodles and serve meat and veg on top so dish doesn’t get too goopy.
Far too much sauce I think! Also, I would probably use a quarter of the peanut butter suggested and instead add crushed peanuts
Not crazy about the dressing. The PB overpowers the mango. I only had chunky PB which actually added some nice crunch. I used extra firm tofu and marinated it with some fish sauce butter from Eric Kim. Chopped scallions also help.
Not good. Bland, heavy, goopy mess. The fact that many of the people who liked this recipe actually made major substitutions tells you something.
The peanut sauce is just too heavy for the noodles. The whole thing just doesn’t work.
Served over rice, with Gochujang instead of Sriracha, and steamed green beans. Delicious,
I made this yesterday, choosing it because I could make it ahead of time (except the noodles) for family coming into town. After reading the comments, I chose to add in more peas and mango, 2 TBS lime zest, plus used some red bell pepper. I didn’t have sriracha, but instead used a mango pepper sauce. 4 of us polished the whole thing—really delicious! I used a rotisserie chicken, which simplified it.
Made the mistake of shredding the chicken fine as I would for tacos or jerked chicken. The chicken bound together in a lump. I followed as written. Needs way more ginger, lime, vinegar and sriracha for my taste.
Subs OK: sweet peppers, peas instead of pods. DO use sugar in dressing.
I didn’t have soba noodles, so just made with udon and I have no complaints. Overall, the recipe is a teeny tiny clunky for me, so I doubled the ginger. I also added more heat with various asian sauces that we keep on hand. But it’s a great weeknight meal that is quite filling and keeps for weekday lunches.
This was a great lunch! Leftovers keep well if you store ingredients separately and build the salad at each meal time. Agree with others that the sauce was too peanut butter forward. Added a bit extra of everything else to compensate (esp. soy and rice vinegar). Also used jalapeños instead of fresnos and green onion instead of cilantro as that’s what we had available to us.
Made it vegan with fake chicken. Mango is lost in the peanut butter sauce so use a ton of mango (at least three). Would double the Sriracha which also gets lost. Cilantro is a must!
Agree with other reviewers that this was not nearly as pretty as the picture. My teenage/early adult kids thought it was delicious. Used 1 lb of soba and it fed 7 of us with some for leftovers. I added more mango and shredded carrot.
This dish needs to be eaten immediately because it does not keep well. The soba noodles became mushy, which is a bad combo with the texture of the mango and cucumbers. The heaviness of the peanut dressing doesn’t pair well with the soba noodles - it would be better with a wider rice noodle. I poached the chicken and shredded it, but I feel like the chicken would be much better baked and then cubed. The recipe needs a lot more lime juice, rice vinegar and heat too, otherwise it is quite bland.
This is a great easy lunch. I added extra hot sauce, extra lime juice and a touch more rice wine vinegar. Used tenderstem broccoli instead of sugar snap peas. I think any crunchy veg would work well. Will be making this again!
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