Change up your usual boring salad with this crunchy and flavorful Chinese Chicken Salad recipe! Made with crispy napa cabbage, crunchy ramen noodles and a delicious Asian dressing, this salad will become a weeknight staple and family favorite.
I won’t lie, one of the things I was most excited about when we moved was how close we would be to a restaurant that serves one of our favorite Chinese Chicken Salad recipes. I’m not going to say that’s why we moved to this area, but I’m also not going to say it wasn’t… This salad is so delicious and so coveted that they literally have a separate section of their restaurant with it have a special refrigerator to keep the salads. If you don’t get there early, the Chinese chicken salad is sold out!
Now we continue to support our local restaurants by ordering takeout, but we also eat this Chinese Chicken Salad so often that I wanted to experiment to see if I could master it at home. I gotta say, I think I came pretty damn close. If you subscribe to my weekly meal plan, don’t be surprised if you see it on the list next week – it’s quickly becoming a staple here!
The flavor of this salad is hard to beat and the ramen noodles and bok choy crunch is so refreshing. It’s just one of those salad recipes that will keep you coming back for more!
Chinese Chicken Salad Ingredients:
This Chinese Chicken Salad recipe has 3 parts: the chicken, the lettuce, and the dressing. Full amounts of each ingredient below!
- Chicken – Boneless, skinless chicken breasts marinated in a delicious combination of soy sauce (or tamari), hoisin sauce, sesame oil and pepper.
- Chinese cabbage – any cabbage will work, but Chinese cabbage is a type of Chinese cabbage that goes perfectly with the rest of the salad ingredients!
- carrot – Grate a large carrot or buy a bag of pre-shredded carrot sticks for a shortcut.
- peeled edamame – an additional source of protein.
- green onion – we only use the white and light green parts of the onion!
- Ramen Noodles – If you are gluten-free, feel free to use a gluten-free version like Lotus Foods brown rice noodles. Regular ramen noodles work well too!
- almonds – Raw almonds work great as we toast them during cooking!
- Sesame seeds – we also roast these for the ultimate flavor punch.
- coriander leaves – optional, but a delicious herb topping!
- Rice wine vinaigrette – Combine olive oil, honey, rice vinegar, ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil, salt and pepper.
How to Make Chinese Chicken Salad:
STEP 1: MARINATE THE CHICKEN
In a large bowl, marinate chicken in combination of soy sauce, hoisin sauce, sesame oil and pepper for 30 minutes.
STEP 2: CHICKEN BAKING
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake chicken (with any remaining marinade juices) in a shallow dish for 15-20 minutes or until chicken is crisp. Let the chicken rest for 5 minutes, then cut into thin strips. You can also grill the chicken if you prefer.
STEP 3: COMBINE VEGETABLES
Combine cabbage, carrots, edamame, and onion in a large salad bowl.
STEP 4: TOAST ALMONDS + RAMEN
Heat a pan over medium heat and add almonds. Cook for about 2 minutes, then add ramen noodles to toast or brown another 2 minutes. Add sesame seeds and cook 1 more minute or until lightly browned.
STEP 5: MAKE CHINESE CHICKEN SALAD DRESSING
Combine all the ingredients for the dressing in a small bowl using a whisk or mason jar (shake well).
STEP 6: THROW SALAD
Add the almond mixture to the salad and garnish with chicken, cilantro (if using) and desired amount of dressing. Mix well.
Simple swaps you can do:
- Not a fan of chicken? You can easily Replace chicken with tofu. You can also use rotisserie chicken if you are short on time.
- Gluten free? Replace soy sauce and hoisin sauce with gluten-free versions with tamari. For the ramen noodles, use rice noodles instead.
- If you can’t find hoisin sauce, feel free to use it Teriyaki sauce.
- Use red cabbage instead of Chinese cabbage, or swap out cabbage entirely for equal parts Iceberg lettuce or romaine lettuce.
- Feel free to skip those coriander if that’s not your thing
- No more fresh ginger for the dressing? Feel free to use dried gingerjust reduce the amount by half (3/4 tsp).
- Add Oranges – Tangerine is a delicious addition to this Chinese Chicken Salad.
How to Store This Chinese Chicken Salad:
To preserve this salad, I recommend dressing it just before eating. Store the dressing in a jar in the fridge and the salad separately in a Tupperware or glass container. Dress the salad just before eating so it doesn’t get too soggy. If you want to make sure your ramen noodles stay crispy, you can store them separately and stir them into the salad just before eating.
Leftovers will keep in the fridge for up to 3 days if you make sure to keep the dressing and salad separate.
More delicious salad recipes:
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Chinese Chicken Salad
Change up your usual boring salad with this crunchy and flavorful Chinese Chicken Salad recipe! Made with crispy napa cabbage, crunchy ramen noodles and a delicious Asian dressing, this salad will become a weeknight staple and family favorite.
- Preparation time: 30 minutes
- Cooking time: 20 minutes
- Total time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 4 portions 1X
- Category: salad
- Method: Cook
- Kitchen: Chinese
- Diet: Gluten free
For the chicken:
- 2 boneless, skinless chicken breast
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp Hoisin sauce
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1/2 tsp pepper
For the salad:
- 6 cups chopped Chinese cabbage (approx 1 medium-sized Chinese cabbage)
- 1/2 cup grated carrots (approx 1 large carrot)
- 1/2 cup peeled edamame
- 3 Spring onion (white and light green), thinly sliced
- 4 oz Ramen noodles, broken into pieces
- 1/4 cup chopped almonds
- 2 tbsp Sesame seeds
- optional: handful of fresh coriander, chopped
For the dressing:
- 3 A teaspoon of olive oil
- 1 1/2 tablespoons of honey
- 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
- 1 1/2 tsp freshly grated ginger
- 1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- pinch of salt and pepper
- In a large bowl, marinate chicken in combination of soy sauce, hoisin sauce, sesame oil and pepper for 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Bake the chicken (with any remaining marinade juices) in a shallow dish for 15-20 minutes or until chicken is crisp
- Remove from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes before cutting into strips.
- Heat a pan over medium heat and add almonds. Cook for about 2 minutes, then add ramen noodles to toast or brown another 2 minutes. Add sesame seeds and cook 1 more minute or until lightly browned.
- Combine cabbage, carrots, edamame, and scallions in a large salad bowl.
- Add almonds, noodles and sesame seeds to the salad.
- Mix all dressing ingredients together.
- Garnish the salad with chicken, cilantro (if using), and desired amount of dressing. Mix well.
- The salad will keep in the fridge for 2-3 days. Lasts longer if you reserve the dressing before serving.
- Enjoy room temperature or cold.
Keywords: Chinese Chicken Salad, Recipe for Chinese Chicken Salad
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