Martha's Chicken, Mushroom & Cabbage Salad... with a twist

Last week I was so excited to pick up the new Martha Stewart Everyday Food Light cookbook at Costco.  I have one other books from this series and I just love them - so many ideas!  I must admit, I usually do make some switcheroonies on the ingredients, but usually if I'm in a bind after work, I know that I can look in the fridge, take a quick inventory of what I have on hand and then flip thru one of the Everyday Food books (or little magazines) and have a delicious dinner in usually about 30 minutes.

Tonight's dinner gives me flashbacks to family potlucks - someone always busts out the asian salad/slaw with crunched up rahmen noodles and everyone goes ballistic because they can't believe someone would make a salad with ICHIBHAN! like oh. my. god.  Anyways, this is slightly more sophisticated and lighter version, although I may have wrecked the healthy factor by adding a cup of chowmein noodles... but whatever!  This salad was deeeelicious!  Check out my version below:

Chicken, Mushroom & Cabbage Salad
Ingredients:
2 boneless chicken breasts, poached and shredded
3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1/2 lb white mushrooms, sliced
2 cups bagged coleslaw mix
1 carrot, thinly sliced
2 ribs celery, thinly sliced
1/4 cup fresh mint leaves, finely sliced
1 cup chowmein noodles
2 green onions, thinly sliced

Method:
Following instructions for easy poached chicken (link above), get your chicken ready.  Cook for about 20 minutes, remove from poaching liquid and shred.

Meanwhile, make the salad dressing: in a small saucepan, combine soy sauce, lemon juice, vegetable oil, sugar and sesame oil.  Bring to a boil, remove from heat and then let cool.

Slice mushrooms and pile in a bowl.  When the dressing has cooled off, pour over the mushrooms and let marinate for 4 or 5 minutes.  I swear I could eat a hundred pounds of mushrooms marinated in this dressing - arg - I think I just got a good idea for Asian marinated vegetables!  Stay tuned for that...

Back to dinner - slice up the rest of the vegetables and set aside.  Then, add the chicken, carrots, celery, cabbage and mint to the marinated mushrooms. 

Toss to combine, plate and garnish with sliced green onions!  Yummy - I dare you to not go back for seconds!