Chinese Chicken Salad
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Made with leftover rotisserie chicken, romaine, napa, crispy wonton strips and the best sesame ginger dressing ever!
Featured Comment
reasons to make Chinese chicken salad at home
- Restaurant quality, tasting even better at home
- Goes well with everything, pairing beautifully with so many main dishes
- Great way to repurpose leftover rotisserie chicken
- Can be made ahead of time, keeping prep time to a minimum
tips and tricks for success
- Prep ahead of time. Save time by making the dressing up to 1 week in advance, and prepping and dicing the vegetables 1-2 days prior and storing them in airtight containers in the fridge.
- Homemade wonton strips goes a long way. Store-bought will save some time in the kitchen but the homemade version requires only 2 ingredients and tastes so much more fresh, crisp and light-textured.
- Add some heat. Need a spicy kick? Add a little bit of Sriracha or sambal oelek to the dressing.
- Make it more filling. Add rotini pasta or soba noodles for a more filling salad.
- Mix it up. Use a different kind of protein, swap the cashews for sliced almonds, or use scallions in place of cilantro.
what to serve with chinese chicken salad
Chinese Chicken Salad: Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, we love this Instant Pot rotisserie chicken recipe! So easy and so flavorful (and makes for great salads).
Bell peppers, zucchini and snap peas are all great additions.
These crispy wonton strips are very easy to make with only 2 ingredients!
Absolutely! The dressing can be stored in the fridge, and everything else can be prepped/chopped and stored in separate containers (especially the mandarin oranges to avoid sogginess). When ready to serve, gently toss all of your ingredients together with the dressing.
Chinese Chicken Salad
Ingredients
- 1 head romaine, shredded
- 4 cups shredded napa cabbage
- 3 cups leftover shredded rotisserie chicken
- 1 (15-ounce) can mandarin oranges, drained
- ½ cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
- ½ cup roasted salted cashews
- 3 green onions, thinly sliced
- 2 cups crispy wonton strips, homemade or store-bought
- 2 teaspoons toasted sesame seeds
for the sesame ginger dressing
- ¼ cup rice vinegar
- 3 tablespoons orange marmalade
- 2 ½ tablespoons canola oil
- 2 ½ tablespoons toasted sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon reduced sodium soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger
- 2 teaspoons toasted sesame seeds
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- To assemble the salad, place romaine lettuce in a large bowl; top with cabbage, chicken, mandarin oranges, cilantro, cashews and green onions. Pour the sesame ginger dressing on top of the salad and gently toss to combine.
- Serve immediately, topped with wonton strips and sesame seeds.
for the sesame ginger dressing
- In a small bowl, whisk together rice vinegar, orange marmalade, canola oil, sesame oil, soy sauce, ginger and sesame seeds; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
Video
Did you make this recipe?
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I don’t trust the cooking time. Ours was totally raw.
WOW! Sorry but can’t you figure out how to test your chicken! How long have you been cooking!!
Didn’t have rice wine vinegar, subbed in 1/4 c + 1tbsp rice vinegar and 1tbsp white wine vinegar. Wok fried thighs(didn’t have breasts) in the marinade with a splash of ponzu and garlic powder to finish. A little fresh diced mango in the salad mix. I don’t think I’ve ever altered a recipe so little. Flavors as it was written were bright and balanced, very subtle layering. Definitely going on my GOTTA DO THIS AGAIN!! list
Wonder how a Thai chili would work somewhere in the mix?
For the dressing, the first item is “1/4 cup”….. cup of what?
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar.
What does 1/4 cup PLUS mean?
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar.
We made the taco lettuce wraps last night, and last week the Mexican quinoa, and the pork chops with sweet and sour glaze. They were all amazing (especially the quinoa and pork chops). I love how you use fresh ingredients in every recipe, and cant wait to make them all! Tonight I am making the Chinese Chicken Salad, and am at work counting down the minutes to go home and start dinner!
Made this salad last night on 2-1-16, and it was fabulous but I couldn’t find the shelled edamame’s at our local store here. But if I had added shelled edamame it would have been great too! I will make this salad again, I really liked the crunch from the Chow Mein Noodles and the Almonds. I served this salad with some Asian potstickers and had some Litehouse toasted sesame ginger dressing & Litehouse mild Thai peanut dressings for dipping or adding extra to the salad also. Thank you for sharing this recipe with us. ❤️
I couldn’t find shelled edamame either, so I bought the frozen steam in a bag edamame. I figured I can just let them cool and pop them out of their shells into the salad! Might be more work, but I love edamame.
Fresh Shelled edamame at Trader Joes
Great recipe! I have made it several times and it always tastes great! I love all the colors and the vinaigrette is great!
I love the photos and description for this recipe and I really want to try it, however, I think what is missing is some reviews… Hardly anyone who commented here actually tried out your recipe. Would like to know if anyone enjoyed the taste before I try it myself?
It’s the best! Simply fantastic! I am making it right now for the second time. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did….
I love your recipes so far all I’ve tried have been very tasty! Thank you so much for all these yummy recipes you have shared. I am making this one tonight and rather than making the chicken in the oven, I have used my small pampered chef stone in the microwave. I happened to be doing 4 chicken breast and the cooking time on it was 15 minutes. I chose to do it this way so I would not heat up my house…
Made this lovely salad last night using store bought rotisserie chicken. I subbed a few ingredients because I did not have…
so, green chickpeas instead of edamame, added sweet pepper rings, thicker cucumber slices. we use BRAGGS soya so no fear of added MSG.
This was a hit, I made a double batch with the intention of sending the salad for lunches but there was nothing left! Did I mention there are only three of us and one is a 6 year old. May use apple cider vinegar next go around, and there will be a next go around! Thanks.
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Love all of your recipes. Thank you! It would really be great if you could offer the option of not printing the photo with the recipe. This would use less ink and less space, many times being able to print the recipe on one page, which would be ideal.
Marge, if you prefer not to print the photo, you can copy and paste the recipe into a text document and print from there. Easy peasy!
Re: Karen’s question about cooking temp.of chicken breasts….
No matter which way you decide to cook them, invest in a digital instant read thermometer.
They are not that expensive. Insert the probe into the THICKEST part of the meat halfway into the chicken breast.
The temperature should read a minimum of 160 degrees….
Don’t mess with this….Undercooked chicken can make you sick….
Thank you so much for all your recipes! This was an awesome salad dressing! I tweaked it a tiny bit by adding a tablespoon of honey and 1/4 teaspoon of red pepper flakes and it was a huge hit! It tied in my Chinese bbqed chicken breast, tomato, avocado, spinach, green onion salad perfectly!
This salad was by far one of the best salads I have ever tasted! It’s great, easy to make, and great for the entire family! Even my 3 year old loved it!! Thanks for the wonderful recipe!
This looks amazing! Can’t wait to try it. How big are your chicken breasts? Around here they tend to be a pound a piece…or close. Do you think you used 2lbs of chicken? Thanks!
I recommend using closer to 1 lb, unless you like a lot of chicken in your salad! 🙂
A lot of us automatically switch to skinless tighs. Flavor x 10.
I always love your recipes! Always Damn Delicious!
Question, I don’t use fresh ginger enough to buy it, but I do have ground ginger. Can I use that instead of the fresh grated ginger in this recipe?
Thank you for always providing great recipes!
Yes, absolutely!
Tried your lettuce wrap. It was a hit. Thanks!
I don’t have oven at my place . Can I cook chicken in the pan. Also, do we get ready to eat crunchy noodles in market. Don’t I need to fry them?
Yes, feel free to cook the chicken to your desired preferences. Crunchy noodles should also be readily available at your local grocery store.
Totally craving this!! Looks perfect.
Girl!!! I am totally crushing on this salad! Pinned
You are so good Woman! This looks delicious. I like to have the girls over for lunch and this would be great.