Canadian Living May Recipe: Sesame Chicken With Fennel and Orange Salad

It's that time again! Time for another Canadian Living recipe!

I've got to be honest.  If you had told me a year ago that I'd be making a salad that called for fennel, I'd give you a very convincing (and polite) smile & nod without believing a word of it!  I think I've had fennel once in my life prior to this recipe, it's definitely not something that I would pick up from the grocery store on a frequent basis.  That's one of the reasons that I absolutely love these monthly recipes, they make me step outside of my comfort zone and try recipes that I typically wouldn't look twice at.

This month's recipe is Sesame Chicken with Fennel and Orange Salad, such a great meal to kick off the bbq season.  

What I loved about it....I'm a huge coleslaw fan, so the homemade mayo dressing & cabbage was right up my alley and bbq chicken is one of our favourite summer meals.  So good.  The honey glaze, oh goodness, did it ever smell absolutely delicious when it was brushed on the chicken.  I also think it's great how both the salad dressing and chicken glaze were made from scratch.

And another first: roasting sesame seeds.  I know,  I know,  that's not so extreme, but I'd never done it before and am quite surprised by how easy it is!  Sesame seeds are a really great way to add an extra touch of flavour to the chicken.

I was so surprised by how great the blend of ingredients tasted together.  This recipe was exactly what I needed to prove that my thoughts on how certain meals are going to taste couldn't be any further from the truth!

The meal itself was easy to prepare and cook.  Next time I think I'll try chopping the fennel into smaller pieces and I will most likely do the same for the chicken and cilantro (I didn't chop the cilantro finely enough).  But overall, it's definitely a light and flavourful summer meal that would be great to make after a day at the beach!  It would also be the perfect "go to" for when company is coming over or when you're asked to bring a salad to a summer get together.

Want to give it a try?! Of course you do.  You can find the recipe on the Canadian Living site, here.  You can also see what other bloggers thought about the meal here.

Cheers,

*sponsored post but opinions are completely my own.