Chinese Chicken Salad

Recipe from MakeItAndLoveIt.blogspot.com
I really like this one!

Serves 3-4

Ingredients:
1 chicken breast (grilled and chopped)
1/2 head of lettuce
2 stalks of celery
1 stalk of green onion
2 8 oz. cans of mandarin oranges
1 8 oz. can of water chestnuts
4 oz. of slivered or sliced almonds
1/2 cup of sugar

Dressing:
1 cup of canola oil
2/3 cup rice vinegar
2 T soy sauce
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar

Directions:
Heat almonds and sugar at medium heat in a small pan. Stir continuously until the sugar has heated through and coated the almonds with a nice caramelized coating. (Don't worry if the sugar gets all clumpy and seems to not be working. Just keep stirring.....it will melt.) Then spread over foil and let cool completely. Chop up all of the remaining salad ingredients and mix together in bowl. In a cruet, mix in all the ingredients for the dressing. Shake until completely blended. The dressing isn't soluble so you'll have to shake again right before pouring over your salad.

One last note: The dressing made is a bit too much for the amount of salad. So I always pour the dressing over individual portions of salad. But if you'd like to pre-mix your salad if you're headed to a pot luck, make sure to watch how much you're using in the salad. Sample it before serving.

Enjoy!