Asian Sesame Chicken Wraps

Sorry for the delay in posting but we've been super busy with a bunch of wedding decisions lately. We're also in the midst of buying our first home. Not to mention that Blogger had a huge fart and decided to try to tell us that our blog was no longer hosted on Blogger's servers. This has since been fixed as of yesterday, and was an issue from our custom domain. This was the cause of that annoying redirect page you may have been seeing. It may have caused some of you (those running IE 6 or 7) to not even be able to view our blog. This episode has made me question moving Chef Fresco to Wordpress. Many of you have Wordpress food blogs. Wordpress is completely open source and there are many more possibilities with it. Give us your thoughts Wordpress or Blogger? - Michael

This is another recipe from the Today's Kitchen Cookbook, with a little of our own adjustments. It's something a little different that your average ole' chicken wrap. The original recipe called for sunflower sprouts, but we used pea sprouts. I've never tried those things, but they're pretty good! The original recipe also called for bok choy, but Michael's not a fan of it so we left it out (if you want to use it, just add 1/2 cup of it, finely chopped). We served the wraps with some peanut sauce from Trader Joe's for dipping (any peanut sauce will do).

For the dressing, you have to thicken 2 cups of vegetable stock. I wasn't really sure how to best go about this, but decided to use about 1.5 tbsp. of cornstarch. I mixed the cornstarch in about 1/4 cup of the stock. I heated the rest of the stock in a small sauce pan over medium heat, then added the cornstarch mixture. I continued cooking, stirring frequently until the mixture was thickened. It turned out to be pretty thick, so you could maybe get away with using 1 tbsp. of cornstarch instead of 1.5 If anyone has a better way of thickening stock, let me know! :) The dressing recipe makes lots extra, so you could definitely half it. I don't know that I'd use the dressing on a regular salad, so don't worry about having some for later.

Ingredients

SESAME DRESSING:

• 1 tsp. minced garlic
• 2 tsp. minced ginger
• 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp. tahini oil
• 2 tbsp. low-sodium soy sauce
• 2 cups thickened vegetable stock
• 1 tbsp. sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp. sriracha (hot chili) sauce
• 1/4 tsp. black pepper
• 1 tbsp. chopped green onions
• 2 tsp. finely chopped cilantro

WRAPS:

• 1.5 tbsp. olive oil
  
• 1/2 cup finely shredded napa cabbage
• 3 tbsp. julienned water chestnuts
• 1/3 cup julienned carrots
• 4 tbsp. sesame ginger dressing
• 8 oz. grilled chicken breast, sliced into strips
  
• 2 whole wheat tortillas
  
• 1/2 cup pea sprouts
• 3 tbps. peanut sauce (optional)
  

Directions

1. First, make dressing: combine garlic, ginger, vinegar, tahini, soy sauce, and vegetable stock in a blender. Blend until garlic and ginger are mixed in well. Add sesame oil, sriracha, pepper, green onions, and cilantro. Blend for 1 minute. Season with salt to taste.
   
2. Heat olive oil in medium saute pan over medium-high heat. Add cabbage, water chestnuts, and carrots. Stir-fry about 1 minute and add sesame dressing. Cook another 2 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside. Add chicken and toss.
3. Divide chicken/veggie mixture among tortillas. Add sprouts & wrap-up. Serve with peanut sauce, if desired.