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Sesame Chicken Salad has amazing Asian flavor and texture and has a delicious ginger sesame dressing. This salad is the perfect weeknight salad and works as a main dish thanks to the chicken.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Lots of Veggies: This salad is a great way to get your family to eat more veggies. Packed with cabbage, spinach, and carrots the whole family will love this salad.
Amazing Flavor: The dressing for this salad is also used as a marinade for the chicken It has lots of yummy flavors including ginger, sriracha sauce, cilantro and hoisin sauce.
Ingredients Needed
- Chicken Breasts, boneless and skinless
- Napa Cabbage or Bok Choy
- Baby Spinach
- Carrots
- Green Onions
- Mandarin Oranges
- Cilantro
- Sliced Almonds, toasted
- Sesame Seeds, toasted
- Soy Sauce
- Red Wine Vinegar or Rice Vinegar
- Ginger
- Oil, canola or vegetable oil
- Hoisin Sauce
- Sesame Oil
- Sriracha Sauce or chili pepper sauce
- Sugar
- Salt and pepper
How to Toast Almonds
Place your sliced almonds in an empty skillet over medium heat. Stir constantly for 3-4 minutes. They will begin to turn golden brown and the nutty flavor will come out. Toasting almonds really enhances the flavor. You can also use this method to toast the sesame seeds.
How to Make Sesame Chicken Salad
- Mix together marinade/dressing ingredients.
- Pound chicken into a thin, even layer, about 1/2-3/4 inch thick.
- Marinate chicken for 30 minutes in 4 Tbsp of the mixture. You can marinate for up to four hours.
- Grill chicken and allow to rest for 15 minutes.
- Toast sliced almonds and sesame seeds.
- Peel and grate carrots.
- Slice cabbage, green onions and cooked chicken. Coursely chop cilantro.
- Assemble salad ingredients, dress, and toss.
Tips from leigh Anne
- To save a bit of time you can also use 2-3 cups of shredded rotisserie chicken instead of grilling chicken. Add 4 -5 Tbsp of the marinade to your shredded rotisserie chicken and allow it to absorb into the chicken.
- To give your sesame chicken salad some extra crunch add in some chow mein noodles, or wonton strips.
- Substitute cashews for almonds if you prefer.
- Diced red pepper and some edamame is also a nice addition to this salad.
- Switch up the base of your salad by using romaine instead of spinach or use all cabbage and add in some red cabbage with the Napa cabbage. If you can’t find Napa cabbage you can also substitute Bok Choy or regular green cabbage
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best way to store leftover Sesame Chicken Salad?
Place the leftovers in an airtight container and keep it in the fridge for up to 2 days.
Can I prepare this salad ahead of time?
The chicken can be marinaded and grilled and then just kept refrigerated until ready to use. You can also chop all the ingredients ahead of time and keep them stored in individual airtight containers or zippered storage bags in the refrigerator until ready to assemble and serve. The dressing can be made and stored in a jar in the fridge for 3-4 days ahead of time.
I can’t find Hoisin sauce what else can I use?
You wont’ get the same flavor but you can substitute Oyster Sauce or Black Bean Sauce.
Check out more of my favorite salad recipes:
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Sesame Chicken Salad
Ingredients
Marinade and Dressing
- 2 chicken breasts boneless, skinless
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 2 Tbsp minced ginger
- 1/4 cup canola or vegetable oil
- 2 Tbsp hoisin sauce
- 1 Tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tsp sriracha sauce
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1/4 cup finely chopped green onions
Salad
- 1 lb. Napa cabbage thinly sliced
- 2-3 cups of baby spinach
- 2 carrots peeled and grated
- 3 green onions thinly sliced (green and white part)
- 1 can mandarin oranges
- 1/2 cup cilantro leaves coarsely chopped
- 1/2 cup sliced toasted almonds
- 1 tsp toasted sesame seeds
Instructions
Marinade
- Mix together soy sauce, ginger, oil, hoisin sauce, sesame oil, sriracha and salt. Can also add pepper to taste if desired.
- 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.
Tips & Notes:
- To save a bit of time you can also use 2-3 cups of shredded rotisserie chicken instead of grilling chicken. Add 4 -5 Tbsp of the marinade to your shredded rotisserie chicken and allow it to absorb into the chicken.
- To give your sesame chicken salad some extra crunch add in some chow mein noodles, or wonton strips.
- Substitute cashews for almonds if you prefer.
- Diced red pepper and some edamame is also a nice addition to this salad.
- Switch up the base of your salad by using romaine instead of spinach or use all cabbage and add in some red cabbage with the Napa cabbage. If you can’t find Napa cabbage you can also substitute Bok Choy or regular green cabbage
Nutrition Facts:
LornaMi says
Sounds fabulous, thanks for sharing. How many do you think it serves as a side salad? Thanks!
Leigh Anne says
Probably about 8
Michelle says
Looks great!! Did you use spinanch as well?
Leigh Anne says
I did and that has been updated in the recipe.
Barb says
Hi there- Did you add additional lettuce to the napa cabbage? Looks yummy, thanks for sharing.
Leigh Anne says
Forgot to add in that I added some baby spinach – will add that to the recipe. Thanks!
teresa says
Oh my yummy…pinning this for sure! Thanks =)
Bailey,T. says
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?
Leigh Anne says
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!!