Recipe: Wendy's Mandarin Chicken Salad with Sesame Dressing (Copycat recipe)

WENDY'S MANDARIN CHICKEN SALAD
WITH SESAME DRESSING
(copycat recipe)

FOR THE SESAME DRESSING:
1/2 cup corn syrup
3 tbsp. white distilled vinegar
2 tbsp. pineapple juice
4 tsp. granulated sugar
1 tbsp. light brown sugar
1 tbsp. rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. sesame oil
1/4 tsp. ground mustard
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/8 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. paprika
dash garlic powder
dash ground black pepper
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 tsp. sesame seeds
FOR THE MANDARIN CHICKEN SALAD:
4 chicken breast fillets
1 large head iceberg lettuce, chopped
4 cups red leaf lettuce, chopped
1 1/3 cups canned mandarin orange wedges
1 cup rice noodles
1 cup roasted sliced almonds

Prepare dressing by combining all dressing ingredients except vegetable oil and sesame seeds in a blender on high speed. Slowly add oil to mixture (to create an emulsion). Add sesame seeds and blend for just a couple seconds. Pour dressing into a covered container (such as a dressing cruet) and chill until needed.

Rub each chicken breast fillet with oil, then lightly salt and pepper each piece. Grill on medium/high heat until done. Chill chicken breasts in refrigerator until cold.

When chicken is cold, build each salad by first arranging about 4 cups of iceberg lettuce in the bottom of a large salad bowl or on a plate. Next, arrange a cup of red leaf lettuce on the iceberg lettuce.

Dice each chicken breast into bite-size pieces and sprinkle the pieces from each one over each salad. Arrange about 1/3 cup of mandarin orange wedges on each salad. Next, sprinkle about 1/4 cup of rice noodles and 1/4 cup of roasted sliced almonds on top of each salad. Add desired amount of sesame dressing and serve.

"Of all the salads on Wendy's "Garden Sensations" menu, this is the one that draws all the cloning requests. It's the sesame dressing that everyone's nuts about. The clone below gives you a nice 1 1/2 cups of the tasty stuff so it'll fit perfectly into a standard dressing cruet. Once you've got your dressing made, building the rest of the mandarin chicken salad is a breeze."

Makes 4 large salads
From: Todd Wilbur
Source: About: Huntsvill, AL