Spicy food makes you sweat like crazy and when your brow cools off, you feel better — and cooler. To that end, this flavor-packed Korean chicken stir-fry is sprinkled with coarse red pepper flakes and served over a colorful, hot, and crunchy bed of chopped red and green cabbage mixed with sesame oil and rice vinegar.
Use some of the chicken in a punched-up version of a classic Japanese sunomono, a refreshing combination of wakame (seaweed) and shredded carrots. This type of seaweed, often found in miso soup, comes dried and pre-cut and is available at Asian and well-stocked markets. When reconstituted in water, the pieces swell to more than five times their size. Serve your salad in a glass bowl or on a glass platter — as the Japanese do — to help you think, and keep, cool.
Shopping list
(For spicy chicken, Japanese salad)
2 pounds boneless chicken thighs
¼ head medium green cabbage
¼ head red cabbage
2 carrots
3 scallions
3 cloves garlic
⅓ bunch garlic chives
1 lemon
Salt and pepper
½ teaspoon sea salt
3 tablespoons dark sesame oil
½ cup unseasoned rice vinegar
3 teaspoons Korean red pepper flakes or
sriracha or chili paste to taste
7 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
½ cup dried Korean or Japanese
seaweed (wakame in Japanese)
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
Debra Samuels can be reached at dgsamuels@gmail.com.