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Sesame Chicken Salad has amazing Asian flavor and texture and has a delicious ginger sesame dressing. This salad is a great side dish salad and also a delicious main dish when you add chicken.
Main Dish Salad
I have piles of recipes that I have ripped out of magazines over the years, but only a small percentage of them ever actually get made. Today I am sharing one of those recipes that I found in a magazine and actually made. My favorite type of salad is one that can also be used as a main dish when you add in some protein.
Ginger Sesame Dressing
We are using the dressing as both a marinade for the chicken and a dressing for the salad. It has lots of yummy flavors including ginger, sriracha sauce, cilantro and hoisin sauce. You can find both Sriracha sauce and hoisin sauce in the Asian aisle of the grocery store.
Mix together the dressing/marinade ingredients.
Reserve 4 Tbsp of the dressing for the chicken marinade. Use the remaining remaining dressing/marinade to dress the salad Just be sure that the half for the dressing NEVER touches your raw chicken.
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 slice.
- Assemble salad and dress with remaining marinade/dressing.
Check out more of my yummy Asian inspired salads:
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Sesame Ginger Salad with Chicken
Ingredients
Marinade and Dressing
- 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
- 2 chicken breasts boneless, skinless
- 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)
- 1/2 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.
- 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:
- If you can’t find Napa Cabbage you can use Bok Choy, romaine or baby spinach.
- Be sure that the reserved part of the marinade doesn’t touch the raw chicken.
- You can substitute sriracha sauce with red chili paste.
- Hoisin sauce is harder to substitute but you could use BBQ sauce or black bean paste but the flavor will be different
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!!