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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
Maria says
How much cilantro did you use?
Leigh Anne says
1/2 Cup leaves chopped
Marissa @ Life is Fantasmic says
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/
Leigh Anne says
Thanks for pinning!
Deb@CookingOnTheFrontBurner says
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!
Leigh Anne says
Thanks Deb – I’m always in the mood for a good salad.
Janice says
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.
Leigh Anne says
Love that you loved it!!
Thanks for letting me know.
deb in sc says
is there anything I can use in place of the siracha? I’m not sure I would have much use for the leftovers.
Leigh Anne says
If you don’t want to purchase Sriracha you could either just leave it out ( it adds some heat) or use Tabasco sauce instead.