Thai sauce spices up chicken salad

Usually when I'm eating salad in a restaurant, I can figure out the ingredients. Today's recipe for Courtyard Bistro Asian Chicken Salad With Chili-Lime Vinaigrette is an exception. (The chefs at Marriott headquarters in Washington, D.C., were kind enough to share their recipe.)

What intrigued me most about this salad was the dressing. I kept trying to figure out what kind of oil was used, since most vinaigrettes do call for it. Yet everything I tried in my test kitchen diluted the dressing's flavor. I could not figure out the punch — a pure punch of chili and lime.

That's because the dressing is basically lime juice and Thai chili sauce. The simplicity made me love it even more!

You can use prepackaged, chopped and shredded vegetables if you'd like to make the salad quicker. Grilled chicken, your own leftovers or purchased cooked chicken will also streamline the prep. But the salad takes only 20 minutes when chopping, slicing and dicing the veggies and grilling your chicken.

Check out kitchenscoop.com for more menu ideas.

Suggested menu: Courtyard Bistro Asian Chicken Salad with Chili-Lime Vinaigrette with a spring roll and iced green tea

Ÿ Beverly Mills and Alicia Ross are co-authors of “Desperation Dinners!” Contact them at Desperation Dinners, c/o Universal Uclick, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106, or tellus@kitchenscoop.com. More at the Desperation Dinners website, kitchenscoop.com.