Gordon Ramsay’s bang bang chicken salad is the one from Bread Street Kitchen (2016). Shredded cooked chicken is warmed in a peanut butter sauce with chili, garlic, sesame oil and mirin. It’s spooned over a crunchy salad of beansprouts, watercress, radishes and ginger, with toasted peanuts in the salad and on top. It serves 4 and takes about 25 minutes.
He got to know bang bang chicken on Friday nights at Memories of China, one of his favorite Chinese restaurants, where he’d go with all his head chefs. There, Mr But tea-smokes the chicken breast and covers it with the sauce once it cools.
The Bread Street Kitchen version is made for leftovers, even the turkey after Christmas. It “packs a bit of a punch,” so if you’re cooking for kids or anyone who doesn’t like chili, he says to leave out the hot stuff.
Gordon Ramsay’s Bang Bang Chicken Salad
Course: SaladsCuisine: AsianDifficulty: Easy4
20
minutes5
530
kcalGordon Ramsay’s bang bang chicken salad recipe from Bread Street Kitchen (2016), with leftover chicken in a warm chili peanut sauce over beansprouts, watercress, radishes and ginger. These ingredients make an Asian chicken salad with peanuts for 4.
Ingredients
- For the salad:
60g (scant ½ cup) unsalted peanuts, roughly chopped
140g (5 oz) beansprouts
100g (3½ oz) watercress
80g (3 oz) breakfast radishes, finely sliced
60g (2 oz) mooli (daikon), finely sliced (optional)
½ to 1 red chili, seeded and cut into thin matchsticks
1 thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and cut into thin matchsticks
sea salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 scallions, finely sliced, to garnish
a small handful of cilantro, torn, to garnish
- For the chicken:
½ to 1 red chili, seeded and quartered
1 garlic clove, peeled
60g (¼ cup) peanut butter
2 teaspoons sesame oil
2 teaspoons mirin
2 teaspoons rice wine vinegar
a pinch of superfine sugar
a pinch of paprika
600g (1 lb 5 oz) cooked chicken breast or thigh, shredded
Directions
- Toast the peanuts: Toast them in a dry skillet over medium heat for a few minutes, shaking the pan now and then, until golden. Tip them into a small bowl.
- Make the salad: Mix the beansprouts, watercress, radishes, mooli, chili and ginger in a large bowl and season with salt. Stir through half the peanuts, then toss with the olive oil. Divide among 4 bowls.
- Make the paste: Pound the chili and garlic to a paste with a mortar and pestle.
- Warm the chicken: Put the paste and the rest of the sauce ingredients in a saucepan and mix well. Stir in the chicken until coated, then warm it over medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring now and then.
- Serve: Spoon the chicken and sauce over the salad. Scatter over the scallions and cilantro, then the rest of the peanuts.
Notes
- Calories are about 530 a serving. Most of them come from the chicken, the peanuts and the peanut butter.
FAQs
What is bang bang sauce?
A warm peanut sauce. In Kitchen Heaven (2004) it’s just 250g of smooth peanut butter, 5 teaspoons of sweet chili sauce, 5 tablespoons of sesame oil and 6 of vegetable oil. He warms it in a bowl over simmering water for a few minutes.
Use smooth peanut butter. If you only have crunchy, he says to warm it and blitz it. For another of his peanut sauces, try his green beans with a chili peanut dressing.
Is bang bang chicken served hot or cold?
Warm on cold: warm chicken and sauce over a cold, crunchy salad.
The Kitchen Heaven version flips it. Cold smoked chicken from the deli is sliced thick onto baby gem lettuce with carrot, spring onions and red onion, and the warm sauce goes over at the table.
What if I don’t have leftover chicken?
Poach some. The book’s tip is 4 large skinless, boneless chicken breasts, about 800g raw, simmered in chicken stock or water for 15 to 20 minutes until cooked through. Let them cool, then shred them.
In the same book, his pan-fried scallops starter only uses the chicken skin. He suggests putting the breasts into this salad or his chicken ballotines.
Can I use chili-garlic paste from a jar?
Yes. His spicy tuna tartare with wonton crisps, in the same book, uses 50g of chili-garlic paste from a jar or the homemade one from this salad. So a jar works here too.
Jars vary in heat, so start with a teaspoon, taste the sauce and add more from there.
What are breakfast radishes and mooli?
Breakfast radishes are the long French ones, red with white tips and milder than round radishes. Regular red radishes work fine.
Mooli is the British name for daikon, the long white Japanese radish. The recipe marks it optional, so leave it out if you can’t find it.
Zaytouna Studio Team is the kitchen team behind Chef Ramsay Recipes. We cook Gordon Ramsay’s recipes from his cookbooks and videos in a home kitchen and write them up for yours, with US and metric measurements.