Chinese chicken salad is made with crunchy cabbage, bean sprouts, carrot, green onions and cubes of chicken that is tossed in simple Asian dressing. Toasted peanuts and crispy noodles are a bonus!
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Chinese chicken salad
This restaurant-worthy salad is easily made at home and much healthier and tastier than the restaurant version. This salad is not an authentic Chinese recipe, but boy it’s super delicious! A salad born in Western Asian restaurants is usually served as an entrée. It became so popular now you can find Chinese chicken salad similar to this in many places like Panera, the cheesecake factory, and more.
It starts with crunchy cabbage as a base and then you build on it by mixing in more vegetables of your choice. Red cabbage, green cabbage, Chinese cabbage, and even romaine lettuce can be added. Go crazy with other vegetables to add in like carrot, bean sprouts, snow peas, and bell peppers. Finally, add cooked chicken to the salad. You can use any leftover chicken, rotisserie chicken, or leftover chicken used from other recipes that will work.
Asian salad dressing
It’s the dressing that makes this salad so good. The star of the recipe packs much flavor into the chopped Chinese chicken salad. It packs all flavors: salty, sweet, and savory notes to the salad.
Made with all Asian ingredients – soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, brown sugar, sesame oil, fresh ginger-garlic, chili sauce, and lemon juice.
Chinese chicken salad dressing is easy to customize. Feel free to add or skip ingredients that are not available.
Ingredients
- 4 cups green cabbage (or Chinese cabbage), finely shredded
- 1 ½ cups red cabbage, finely shredded
- 1 cup carrot, shredded
- 1 ½ cup bean sprouts
- 2 cups cooked chicken, shredded or cut into cubes
- ½ cup green onion
- ½ cup fresh cilantro and mint leaves
For Asian chicken salad dressing
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 ½ teaspoon ginger, minced
- 2 tablespoon soy sauce
- 3 tablespoon rice wine vinegar (or rice vinegar or apple cider vinegar)
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
- 2 tablespoon vegetable oil (like grapeseed oil or canola oil or sunflower oil)
- 2 teaspoon Asian chili sauce (like sriracha or other types)
- 1 ½ teaspoon brown sugar
- Pinch of salt and pepper
- 1 ½ teaspoon lemon juice (fresh squeezed)
For garnish
- Toasted peanuts
- Crispy chowmein noodles
Green onion
How to make Asian chicken salad
Prepare the vegetables. Using a mandolin slicer thinly sliced green cabbage, red cabbage, and carrot. You can use a knife and slice the vegetables thin if you don’t have a mandolin slicer.
Make the dressing. Into a jar mix fresh ginger, fresh garlic, soy sauce, rice vinegar, chili sauce, toasted sesame oil, vegetable oil, brown sugar, a pinch of salt, and freshly squeezed lemon juice. Mix well and keep aside.
Assemble the salad. Combine thinly shredded green cabbage, red cabbage, carrot, bean sprouts, cooked and shredded chicken, green onion, toasted peanuts, crunchy chowmein noodles, fresh cilantro, and mint leaves. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss well.
Serve immediately.
Tips to make best Chinese chicken salad
- Go crazy with vegetables. Add any vegetables of your choice. Red cabbage, green cabbage, Chinese cabbage, and even romaine lettuce can be added. Other vegetables to add in like carrot, bean sprouts, snow peas, and bell peppers.
- Change the protein. Cooked and shredded chicken is used in the recipe which can be easily swapped with shrimp, cooked turkey, or cubes of tofu for a vegetarian option.
- Spice up the dressing. I like to add a kick to the salad by spicing up the dressing with Asian chili sauce like sriracha. If you want more sweetness to feel free to add more sugar to the dressing.
- Double it up. One of the easy ways to inhale in more veggies with your meal is to serve a big portion of crunchy vegetable-loaded salad alongside. You can feed a big crowd by easily doubling the salad. Remember to double the dressing as well if you double it.
- Make ahead. Chinese chicken salad is a great make-ahead salad. Keep salad, dressing and the garnished separate until you are ready to serve. Chopped salad vegetables keep good for 5 days when stored in an airtight container in the fridge. Salad dressing will keep for 2-3 days. When ready to serve, simply toss everything together and serve.
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📋Chinese Chicken Salad
Ingredients
- 4 cups green cabbage or Chinese cabbage, finely shredded
- 1 ½ cups red cabbage finely shredded
- 1 cup carrot shredded
- 1 ½ cup bean sprouts
- 2 cups cooked chicken shredded or cut into cubes
- ½ cup green onion
- ½ cup fresh cilantro and mint leaves
For Asian chicken salad dressing
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1 ½ teaspoon ginger minced
- 2 tablespoon soy sauce
- 3 tablespoon rice wine vinegar or rice vinegar or apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
- 2 tablespoon vegetable oil like grapeseed oil or canola oil or sunflower oil
- 2 teaspoon Asian chili sauce like sriracha or other types
- 1 ½ teaspoon brown sugar
- Pinch of salt and pepper
- 1 ½ teaspoon lemon juice fresh squeezed
For garnish
- Toasted peanuts
- Crispy chowmein noodles
- Green onion
Instructions
- Prepare the vegetables. Using a mandolin slicer thinly sliced green cabbage, red cabbage, and carrot. You can use a knife and slice the vegetables thin if you don’t have a mandolin slicer.
- Make the dressing. Into a jar mix fresh ginger, fresh garlic, soy sauce, rice vinegar, chili sauce, toasted sesame oil, vegetable oil, brown sugar, a pinch of salt, and freshly squeezed lemon juice. Mix well and keep aside.
- Assemble the salad. Combine thinly shredded green cabbage, red cabbage, carrot, bean sprouts, cooked and shredded chicken, green onion, toasted peanuts, crunchy chowmein noodles, fresh cilantro, and mint leaves. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss well.
- Serve immediately.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Recipe Notes:
Go crazy with vegetables. Add any vegetables of your choice. Red cabbage, green cabbage, Chinese cabbage, even romaine lettuce can be added. Other vegetables to add in like carrot, bean sprouts, snow peas, bell peppers.
Change the protein. Cooked and shredded chicken is used in the recipe which can be easily swapped with shrimp, cooked turkey or cubes tofu for vegetarian option.
Spice up the dressing. I like to add kick to the salad by spicing up the dressing with Asian chili sauce like sriracha. If you want more sweet feel free to add more sugar to the dressing.
Double it up. One of the easy ways to inhale in more veggies with your meal is to serve a big portion of crunchy vegetable loaded salad alongside. You can feed a big crowd by easily doubling the salad. Remember to double the dressing as well if you double it.
Make ahead. Chinese chicken salad is great make-ahead salad. Keep salad, dressing and the garnished separate until you are ready to serve. Chopped salad vegetables keeps good for 5 days when stored in air tight container in the fridge. Salad dressing will keep for 2-3 days. When ready to serve, simply toss everything together and serve.
Created by Jyothi Rajesh
Jyothi Rajesh is the founder of the food blog, Curry Trail. She lives in Bangalore, India and is the mom of two beautiful kids. Her passion is creating and sharing delicious and easy recipes for the home cook. She’s been blogging since 2007 and many of her recipes have appeared in both online and print publications over the years. Learn more about Jyothi Rajesh.
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