Dressing for Chinese Chicken Salad

[newsbabe]

Love the dressing on the Chinese Chicken Salad at The Cheesecake Factory, but am not sure how to duplicate it. My on-line search came up empty-handed... the few dressings I pulled up really didn't seem similar. Would anyone have any ideas? ...I wonder if there's hosin sauce in it? Maybe??? What the heck makes this one so darned tasty???

[takomabaker]

Love the dressing on the Chinese Chicken Salad at The Cheesecake Factory, but am not sure how to duplicate it. My on-line search came up empty-handed... the few dressings I pulled up really didn't seem similar. Would anyone have any ideas? ...I wonder if there's hosin sauce in it? Maybe???  What the heck makes this one so darned tasty???

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Trader Joe's has a bottled Chinese Chicken Salad dressing that claims it is as good as that of "famous restaurants" that I bought on a whim. I've used it a few times and it isn't bad, but I've never had the salad at The Cheesecake Factory so I have no point of comparison. You might give it a try, though, if you live near a TJs.

[zilla369]

I've never been to a Cheesecake Factory, but their online menu says their Chinese Chicken Salad is "tossed in our special Chinese Plum Dressing". So it's probably got plum sauce in it.

Help me out here, folks: plum sauce usually includes plums or plum jam, sesame oil, soy sauce, ginger, and chile oil?

[Toliver]

I've never been to a Cheesecake Factory, but their online menu says their Chinese Chicken Salad is "tossed in our special Chinese Plum Dressing".  So it's probably got plum sauce in it. 

Help me out here, folks:  plum sauce usually includes plums or plum jam, sesame oil, soy sauce, ginger, and chile oil?

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Isn't plum sauce just hoisin sauce?

Here's a Hoisin Dressing I found Googling:

"Chicken Salad with Hoisin Sauce"

Scroll about a third of the way down the web page.

edited for spellling

Edited June 20, 2005 by Toliver (log)

[ludja]

I've never eaten at the Cheesecake Factory, but below is a pretty standard recipe for the dressing for the type of 'classic' Chinese Chicken Salad invented in CA in the 60's/70's.

I've not had versions with hoisin or plum sauce in them. The sauce is pretty simple and the dominant, distinctive flavor is from the sesame seed oil.

Sauce

1/2 cup sesame seed oil

Pinch of salt

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1/2 cup light soy sauce

2 scallions, chopped fine

1 teaspoon hot pepper oil (optional)

edited to add: As can be seen, this is not a sweet dressing. The Cheesecake Factory version may be their own invention.

Edited June 20, 2005 by ludja (log)

[Tess]

You can sometimes have good luck with this kind of thing by asking your server. They won't usually spell out the whole recipe but they will often tell you what the trick is.

[Badiane]

]

Isn't plum sauce just hoisin sauce? 

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Nope...hoisin is a bean based condiment, also called Duck Sauce. Plum Sauce is that stuff you put on egg rolls or dip chicken fingers it - basically a vinegared plum jam of some kind.

[Toliver]

]

Isn't plum sauce just hoisin sauce? 

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Nope...hoisin is a bean based condiment, also called Duck Sauce. Plum Sauce is that stuff you put on egg rolls or dip chicken fingers it - basically a vinegared plum jam of some kind.

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My confusion comes from this post from the "China and Chinese Cuisine" forum:

To start with, probably because the same pancakes are also served with Peking Duck, and because Moo Shu Pork is dry-cooked, and because the not so knowledgeable American customer was used to having ‘sauce’ with their ‘rolls’ and asked ‘what kind of sauce goes with this dish’, some enterprising restaurateur decided to serve hoisin with Moo Shu Pork. To complicate matters, a common mistake was incorporated and many Americans started mistakenly referring to hoisin as plum sauce. Think of this, here you have gone to all of this trouble to create a subtly delicious dish permeated with the exotic fragrance of the lily buds and you obliterate all that effort with a spoonful of tasty but overwhelming hoisin sauce. May taste good, but it’s still catsup on steak.

So "Plum sauce" is what is served with Moo Shu but it's not really plum sauce, ergo hoisin.

[newsbabe]

thanks guys! the hoisin one sounds very close... the other recipe posted was the one i kept coming up with too! (but thanks for posting it!) -- looks good, but i was looking for the sweet one! :)

[Gifted Gourmet]

I have made this one with much success! It is sweet as well but not very sweet ... and the addition of the creamy peanut butter makes it a bit Thai ...

[akur23]

I used to work at the CCF and would snack on the oatmeal bread dipped into the plum dressing. I once sneaked into the kitchen and looked at the recipe, but did not have a chance to write it down. I would love a copy cat recipe!