Chin Chin Chinese Chicken Salad Recipe

While making a Chinese Chicken Salad, the dressing recipe, which I thought was permanently etched in my brain, was suddenly missing a few items. Did I use rice vinegar? And was there soy sauce? I thought I could check the recipe online but I couldn't find it. I dug out my old binder full of recipes from cooking lessons I took years ago at Ma Cuisine, the cooking school at Ma Maison. The salad was a favorite at the popular restaurant Chin Chin.

The binder full of recipes brought on a wave of nostalgia. Many of the celebrity chefs of those days are long gone from the current food scene: Jean Francois Meteigner of L'Orangerie, Ed La Dou of Pizza fame, Patrick Terrail who owned Ma Maison. 

The Ma Maison cooking school was conducted in a kind of tent affair next to the restaurant. The whole place was a hodge-podge of mismatched furniture and kitschy decoration. In its hey-day, the restaurant had a celebrity list that was mind-boggling. One of the classes I took was taught by Martha Stewart, who was just gaining popularity. She left mid-class to take a phone call and apologized when she returned, saying it had been Jackie Kennedy and she didn't want to keep her waiting. Things have changed for Martha. I noticed she has a show with Snoop Dog. Lots of glitter and oodles of bad taste.

My home mortgage payment at the time was $148.00 a month. I guess that puts these prices into perspective. We thought the menu was pretty standard French for the time. The raclette and the fondue were hard to find then and I imagine hard to find now. Well, maybe not the fondue.

At another class taught by Roy Yamaguchi, Truman Capote sat in on the side, drinking one martini? after another. I just finished his classic coming-of-age story, The Grass Harp.

Here's the recipe. The creator of Chin Chin, Bob Mandler, taught the Ma Cuisine class so the following recipe is authentic. Meanwhile the Mandlers are opening something new.

My Little Dumpling is the work of Robert and Anthony Mandler, a father-son duo with plenty of experience in the restaurant business. The former founded the mega-popular upscale Chinese restaurant chain Chin Chin way back in 1983, envisioning the place as a see-and-be-seen spot for classic New York City-style Chinese food. Now the pair is keen to replicate the model in new ways, offering dumplings and a few other staples as well as beer and wine. This will be a full-service restaurant, with decor and ambiance provided by son Anthony Mandler.

Chin Chin Classic Shredded Chicken Salad

Salad Ingredients

 4 ozs. roasted chicken breasts (approximately 2 half-breasts) slivered

1/2 cup slivered green onion

2 cups shredded iceberg lettuce

1 cup shredded carrot

1/2 cup slivered toasted almonds

1 1/2 cups deep fried wonton skin strips

3 cups deep-fried rice stix 

Dressing (makes 9 ozs.)

1 tsp. minced fresh ginger

1/4 cup coarsely chopped preserved red ginger

2 T syrup from preserved red ginger

2 T minced green onion

2 T sesame oil

6 T red wine vinegar

1/2 tsp sugar

4 T light soy sauce

1/2 tsp. chili paste

Combine salad ingredients except wontons, rice stix and nuts and toss well. Add rice stix and nuts and fold in. Combine dressing ingredients. Pour a couple of ounces over the salad. Add wontons to the top.