Ginger Sesame Chicken Salad is the prefect delicious and light lunch.
Do you love food/cooking magazines as much as I do? I have piles of recipes that I have ripped out of magazines just waiting to be made. A small percentage of them ever actually get made but today I am sharing one of those recipes that I found in a magazine and actually made. And you are going to be glad I made it!
This is a delicious salad that can be served with or without chicken. It has lots of yummy flavors in the marinade and dressing with – ginger, sriracha sauce, cilantro and hoisin sauce.
Not only does it have lots of yummy flavors but it has lots of great texture too. It uses napa cabbage which is always a nice change from lettuce. I also added in some baby spinach. There is some nice crunch too with almonds, carrots and sesame seeds.
This salad can be served as a main dish with the chicken or as a delicious side salad with an Asian inspired main dish just by leaving the chicken off. We enjoyed this salad a couple of days in a row since we loved it so much. To make the dressing for the salad you will set aside some of the marinade. Just be sure that the part for the dressing NEVER touches your raw chicken. I marinaded my chicken for about 30 minutes but you could do it for longer if you wanted to.
For other yummy Asian inspired salads:
CopyCat Panera Asian Sesame Chicken Salad
Sesame Ginger Salad Recipe
Sesame Ginger Salad with Chicken
Ingredients
Marinade and Dressing
- 1/4 C soy sauce
- 2 Tbsp minced ginger
- 1/4 C canola or vegetable oil
- 2 Tbsp hoisin sauce
- 1 Tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tsp sriracha sauce
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 chicken breasts boneless, skinless
- 1/4 C red wine vinegar
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1/4 C finely chopped green onions
Salad
- 1 lb. Napa cabbage thinly sliced
- 2-3 C of baby spinach
- 2 carrots peeled and grated
- 3 green onions thinly sliced (green and white part)
- 1/2 C cilantro leaves coarsely chopped
- 1/2 C sliced toasted almonds
- 1 tsp toasted sesame seeds
Instructions
Marinade
- Mix together soy sauce, ginger, oil, hoisin sauce, sesame oil, sriracha and salt.
- Using a meat pounder or a heavy pan pound the chicken breasts to an even thickness (about 1/2 - 3/4 inch thick)
- Put chicken in zip to bag and add in 4 Tbsp marinade.
- Reserve rest of the marinade for dressing. PLEASE be sure it does not come in contact with the raw chicken.
Dressing
- To reserved marinade add 1/4 C red wine vinegar, sugar and green onions.
Chicken
- Grill marinated chicken breasts in a grill pan or on outdoor grill. Grill until cooked through.
- Allow chicken to rest for about 10-15 minutes.
- Cut into 1/4 inch thick slices
Salad
- In a large bowl combine cabbage, carrots, green onions, cilantro, half of sesame seeds and almonds.
- Add desired amount of dressing and chicken and mix together.
- Garnish with remaining sesame seeds and almonds.
Nutrition
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I too have piles of recipes gathered from online or magazines. I’m curious how you store/organize your recipes? Is there a method to the madness you’ve found functional?
I’m not too organized but I do have a small standing file box that I have folders in and organize the recipes by type in there – cookies, chicken, salad etc. I usually end up with a pile of recipes to file next to the file box though!!
Oh my yummy…pinning this for sure! Thanks =)
Hi there- Did you add additional lettuce to the napa cabbage? Looks yummy, thanks for sharing.
Forgot to add in that I added some baby spinach – will add that to the recipe. Thanks!
Looks great!! Did you use spinanch as well?
I did and that has been updated in the recipe.
Sounds fabulous, thanks for sharing. How many do you think it serves as a side salad? Thanks!
Probably about 8
is there anything I can use in place of the siracha? I’m not sure I would have much use for the leftovers.
If you don’t want to purchase Sriracha you could either just leave it out ( it adds some heat) or use Tabasco sauce instead.
We had this salad for a birthday lunch today (minus the sriracha) and it was wonderful. My daughter-in-law said it was the best salad I had ever made. Thanks for sharing.
Love that you loved it!!
Thanks for letting me know.
I’m in the mood for salads even though it is still winter! Thanks for sharing this with us at our Marvelous Monday Party! Pinning!
Thanks Deb – I’m always in the mood for a good salad.
YUM!!! Pinned! I’d love for you to share this at my Saturday Dishes Link Party this weekend! It’s a themed link up & this week’s theme is Memorial Day & Grilling! Feel free to share other posts that fit the theme as well if you have them! (: http://lifeisfantasmic.blogspot.com/
Thanks for pinning!
How much cilantro did you use?
1/2 Cup leaves chopped