Chinese Chicken Salad: An Easy Exciting Main Dish

Chinese Chicken Salad is loaded with vibrant flavors and textures. Great for a main dish salad that’s filling and satisfying!

Chinese Chicken Salad is loaded with vibrant flavors and textures. Great for a main dish salad that’s filling and satisfying!

Chinese Chicken Salad is a favorite main dish when eating out BUT it’s easy to make at home too!

Salad is often restricted to the warm months but Chinese Chicken Salad is a great year-round choice thanks to its filling, wholesome ingredients, and great flavors.

I love the bright, fresh flavors of the salad ingredients and the dressing. It’s colorful and has a great fresh crunch!

What Is Chinese Chicken Salad?

Chinese Chicken Salad is a robust salad featuring chopped or shredded chicken.

Asian ingredients and flavors that have become popular in the United States combine to make the salad a fresh, brightly flavored, crunchy main dish.

This is not a totally traditional Chinese Chicken Salad recipe but with all the variations I’m not sure there IS a ‘traditional’ recipe!

Some versions include mandarin orange segments or fried Chow Mein noodles.

Instead I opted for fresh ingredient that give the burst of flavor and the crunch.

Ingredients in Chinese Chicken Salad

What’s in Chinese Chicken Salad? Loads of wholesome delicious ingredients!

• Soft Napa cabbage
• Red cabbage
• Cilantro
• Carrots
• Green onions
• Shredded chicken breast
• Sliced almonds finish the presentation and give another crunch

How to Make Chinese Chicken Salad Dressing

The dressing is a combination of wonderful Asian flavors:

• Sesame oil
• Rice Wine Vinegar
• Chili oil for a light bit of heat
• Tamari or soy sauce for some salt
• fresh Ginger
• Brown Sugar
• Garlic

It’s tangy, salty, spicy and bright in flavor adding the finishing touch on the salad.

Add all ingredients to a jar and seal. Shake to combine and set aside for the flavors to infuse while making the salad.

Tip for Adding Dressing to Chinese Chicken Salad

If you’ll be serving the salad in one sitting, use all of the dressing.

If you will serve it over a few meals, dress individual portions of salad and store the rest in the refrigerator. The salad in a sealed container or covered with plastic wrap and the dressing in a sealed jar.

This will keep the salad fresh and crunchy until the dressing is added.

Make it Gluten-Free!

This Chinese Chicken Salad does not contain Chow Mein noodles as some recipes do. That takes the gluten away from the ingredients.

When making the dressing use Tamari, which is a gluten-free version of soy sauce!

How to Cook Chicken for Chinese Chicken Salad: a TRICK!

Shredded chicken breast adds tasty protein to the Chinese Chicken Salad.

The recipe calls for making the shredded chicken via my own special trick/recipe which makes flavorful shredded chicken, without a fuss and a cool shredding method (no forks or fingers required).

Unlike most shredded chicken, this version has real flavor and does not taste like stewed chicken.

It’s an easy method that you’ll want to use for many other recipes!

What to Serve with Chinese Chicken Salad

Since Chinese Chicken Salad is a main dish that contains a variety of ingredients it’s fine to serve it solo.

If you want to add more to the menu here are some suggestions:

• Pot Stickers (I make frozen gluten-free pot stickers that are as good as those homemade; keep it easy)
• Egg Rolls
• Fruit Skewers
• Spicy Pineapple Shrimp Fried Rice
• Spicy Garlic Sriracha Shrimp and Broccoli Stir Fry
• Singapore Street Noodles

5 from 25 votes

Print

Chinese Chicken Salad

This main crunchy dish salad is fresh with healthy whole ingredients bursting with flavor. The tangy, slightly spicy dressing is the perfect finishing touch.

Course Salad

Cuisine American

Keyword chinese chicken salad, gluten-free chinese chicken salad

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 8 minutes

Total Time 20 minutes

Servings 6 main dish salads (approximately 2 cup servings)

Calories 195 kcal

Author Toni Dash

Ingredients

Ingredients for the dressing:

• 1/3 cup Rice Wine Vinegar
• 2 tablespoons Tamari (if gluten-free) or regular Soy Sauce (if not gluten-free)
• 1 tablespoon Sesame Oil
• 1 teaspoon Chili Oil
• 1 tablespoon Brown Sugar
• 1 tablespoon fresh diced Ginger Root
• 1 large Garlic Clove , diced

Ingredients for the Chinese Chicken Salad:

• 1 recipe Homemade Moist Shredded Chicken Breast (equivalent of 3 cups shredded chicken)
• 5 cups Shredded Napa Cabbage (I cut across the cabbage and separate the slice into individual strands of cabbage)
• 3 cups Finely Shredded Red Cabbage
• 2 cups Grated Carrots
• ½ cup chopped fresh Cilantro leaves
• 4 large Scallions (green onions), trimmed and sliced (both white and green portions)
• ¼ cup Sesame Seeds (white, black or a mix)
• ¼ cup Sliced Almonds

Instructions

1. Prepared the dressing by combining all the dressing ingredients into a small jar with a lid. Seal, shake vigorously and set aside for the flavors to infuse.
2. Prepare the homemade moist shredded chicken breast. While the chicken breasts are cooking, in a large bowl combine the Napa cabbage, red cabbage, carrots, cilantro and green onions; toss to combine, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.
3. Allow the freshly shredded chicken to cool slightly and combine with the salad and the sesame seeds; toss.
4. Dressing the salad: if you plan to serve the entire salad, add all of the dressing and toss. If you plan to use the salad over multiple meals, dress individual servings of the salad and store the salad and dressing separately to keep the salad crisp. Sprinkle the top of the salad with sliced almonds just before serving to keep them crunchy.

Nutrition Facts

Chinese Chicken Salad

Amount Per Serving

Calories 195 Calories from Fat 81

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 9g 14%

Saturated Fat 1g 5%

Cholesterol 24mg 8%

Sodium 407mg 17%

Potassium 571mg 16%

Total Carbohydrates 15g 5%

Dietary Fiber 4g 16%

Sugars 7g

Protein 13g 26%

Vitamin A 159.9%

Vitamin C 57%

Calcium 16.6%

Iron 12.9%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Originally published: January 6, 2017