Chinese Chicken Salad

5 from 5 votes

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The colorful, classic Chinese restaurant salad is yours to make at home, savory and sweet, with lots of crunch.

Chinese Chicken Salad

This is the kind of salad I can’t resist on a menu, and the fact that years after it came into “fashion,” it still appears on many a restaurant menu means I’m clearly not alone. If you find it on a menu at a place like the Cheesecake Factory, be prepared for a manhole-sized platter piled high with chopped things to get plopped in front of you. I literally can get breathless eating a salad of this nature — I get pretty into it.

Chicken salads almost always have something crunchy, something sweet, and something savory. Many old-school Chinese chicken salads rely on lo mein noodles and/or nuts (often almonds) for crunch and mandarin orange segments for sweetness. This salad has the most delicious dressing. Serve it with something hearty, like Healthy Orange Chicken, Teriyaki Salmon, or Drunken Noodles.

Chinese Chicken Salad in a white bowl.

The Best Chinese Chicken Salad: The colorful, classic restaurant salad is yours to make at home, savory and sweet, with lots of crunch.

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Chinese Chicken Salad Ingredients

If you want to leave out one or two of the veggies, this Chinese chicken salad recipe will still turn out great.

For the Dressing

  • Soy sauce – Gives the dressing a salty pop.
  • Rice vinegar – Providing a gentle tartness.
  • Ginger – A bit of a kick and that inimitable fresh gingery flavor.
  • Sesame and vegetable oil – The sesame oil adds nuttiness; the vegetable oil will emulsify the dressing into creamy smoothness as it is slowly added.
  • Honey – A bit of sweetness to balance out the salty and spicy flavors.
  • Garlic – Not too much, but a little bit for flavor and heat.
  • Sriracha sauce – Dial the amount up or down depending on how spicy you like your dressing.

For the Salad

  • LettuceNapa cabbage or romaine lettuce works! Or try a combo.
  • Red onion, cucumber, carrots, and bell pepper – The perfect colorful, light, and crunchy veggies to complement the delicious dressing.
  • Chicken – You can use any simply cooked shredded chicken, from slow cooker shredded chicken, baked chicken breasts, or poached chicken. Or make it easy on yourself and use a purchased rotisserie chicken!
  • Scallion – A great garnish that provides a slightly oniony but fresh extra pop of flavor.
  • Peanuts – A crunchy, nutty element.
  • Noodles – You can either use purchased crunchy lo mein noodles in this recipe, or you can use ramen noodles. Inexpensive, easy-to-find ramen noodles are par-cooked, so they are dried and crunchy but fine to eat right out of the package; no boiling is needed or desired here.
  • Cilantro – If you are not a cilantro lover, you can use fresh flat-leaf parsley.
Bowls of Chinese Chicken Salad on table with drinks.

How to Make Chinese Chicken Salad

  1. Make the dressing: In a food processor, combine the soy sauce, vinegar, ginger, sesame oil, honey, garlic, and Sriracha. Keep the motor running and drizzle in the oil slowly through the feed tube until everything is blended and nicely thickened.
  2. Combine salad ingredients: In a large mixing bowl, combine the cabbage, onion, jicama or kohlrabi (if using), cucumber, carrots, peppers, and shredded chicken.
  3. Dress: Drizzle over the dressing and toss to combine.
Tossing chicken and veggie salad with Asian dressing in pink bowl.
  1. Add the toppings: Transfer to a serving bowl and add the scallions, peanuts, and noodles.
Woman topping Chinese chicken salad with scallions, peanuts, and noodles.
  1. Serve: Garnish with cilantro, and serve.
Two bowls of Chinese Chicken Salad on a table with wine glasses.

FAQs

Is Chinese Chicken Salad actually Chinese?

Is this an authentic Chinese dish? Um, nope. In the ’30s the first Chinese Chicken Salads started taking shape, but from all accounts, they didn’t much resemble what we know as Chinese Chicken Salad today.

As the story goes, in the 1960s, Madame Wu of her eponymous renowned Chinese restaurant in LA made what we think of when think of this salad to fulfill a request for Cary Grant one night. I’m not 100% what he asked for if the salad itself wasn’t a “thing” yet, but that’s one story. Then, there are competing stories involving different Chinese restaurants and chefs during the 1950s and ’60s, and the truth seems a little murky.

However, in a coda to the origin story, there is a story that feels a bit too familiar to many chefs from around the world. The salad really became famous when Wolfgang Puck started serving a version on his menu at his LA restaurant, Chinois, where it is served to this day. At the time, the ingredients and combination were startlingly exotic. And now it’s kind of become a retro-modern West Coast staple. Whatever story is the real one, it’s definitely fusion food at its core.

What is Chinese salad dressing made of?

The dressing is savory with soy and sesame and a little spicy from garlic, ginger, and hot sauce.

What to Serve With Chinese Chicken Salad

Chinese Chicken Salad in bowls on white table.

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5 from 5 votes

Chinese Chicken Salad

The colorful, classic Chinese restaurant salad is yours to make at home, savory and sweet, with lots of crunch.
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 0 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
Servings: 8 People

Ingredients 

For the Soy Sesame Dressing

  • 3 tablespoons soy sauce (preferably less sodium)
  • cup rice vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon peeled and chopped fresh ginger
  • 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • 1 teaspoon Sriracha or other hot sauce
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper (to taste)
  • ½ cup vegetable or canola oil

For the Salad:

  • 3 cups shredded Napa cabbage or romaine lettuce
  • 1 red onion (halved and thinly sliced)
  • 1 cup peeled and julienned (cut into matchsticks) jicama (or kohlrabi; optional)
  • ½ seedless (English) cucumber (halved lengthwise and cut into thin half moons)
  • ¾ cup peeled and shredded carrots
  • 1 red, yellow or orange bell pepper, (cored, seeded and julienned)
  • 2 cups shredded cooked chicken
  • ½ cup sliced scallion (white and green parts)
  • ½ cup salted peanuts (roughly chopped)
  • 1 cup crunchy lo mein noodles (or one 3-ounce package ramen noodles; (discard seasoning packet)
  • ½ cup roughly chopped fresh cilantro leaves
  • ½ cup toasted sesame seeds (optional)

Instructions 

  • Make the dressing: In a food processor, add the soy sauce, vinegar, ginger, sesame oil, honey, garlic, and Sriracha. Process until well combined. Keep the motor running and drizzle in the oil slowly through the feed tube until everything is blended and nicely thickened.
  • Make the salad: In a large mixing bowl, combine the cabbage, onion, jicama or kohlrabi (if using), cucumber, carrots, peppers, and chicken.
  • Drizzle over the dressing and toss to combine. Transfer to a serving bowl and add the scallions, peanuts, lo mein or ramen noodles, and cilantro. Sprinkle with the sesame seeds if using. Serve.

Notes

To julienne vegetables is to cut them into very slender little sticks, like very thin matchsticks. This term is usually used with firmer vegetables, such as carrots, beets, or zucchini.

Nutrition

Calories: 520kcal, Carbohydrates: 36g, Protein: 17g, Fat: 28g, Saturated Fat: 13g, Cholesterol: 26mg, Sodium: 565mg, Potassium: 538mg, Fiber: 5g, Sugar: 5g, Vitamin A: 2266IU, Vitamin C: 15mg, Calcium: 155mg, Iron: 3mg
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About Katie Workman

Katie Workman is a cook, a writer, a mother of two, an activist in hunger issues, and an enthusiastic advocate for family meals, which is the inspiration behind her two beloved cookbooks, Dinner Solved! and The Mom 100 Cookbook.

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