The Best Chinese Chicken Salad
Recipe yields a little more than 1 cup of salad dressing. If that's too much, just half everything down below.
Servings: 4
Ingredients
For the dressing:
- 1/2 cup fresh orange juice
- 1/4 cup brown rice vinegar
- 1/4 cup soy sauce or coconut aminos low sodium
- 2 to 3 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
- 1 tablespoon sweet red chili sauce I used Thai Kitchen
- 1/2 tablespoon Gochujang; Korean hot pepper paste
- 2 tablespoons avocado oil
- 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil split
For the salad:
- 3 to 4 cups cooked rotisserie chicken* shredded
- 3 to 4 carrots peeled and julienned or grated
- 4 to 6 scallions diced; split
- 1/2 head green or Napa cabbage shredded or chopped
- 1/2 head red cabbage shredded or chopped
- 3 to 4 cups fresh spring greens mix or romaine lettuce chopped
- orange slices from 1 to 2 oranges supremed or chopped
- 1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves chopped, optional
- sliced almonds**
Instructions
For the dressing:
- Using a medium sized mixing bowl, whisk together the orange juice, vinegar, soy sauce, ginger, honey, hoisin, sweet red chili sauce, gochujang, avocado oil and 1 tablespoon of the sesame oil. Taste and adjust any ingredients as needed. Set aside.
For the salad:
- If you want to keep the salad fresh, simply toss together the carrots, scallions, shredded cabbage and mixed greens in a large mixing bowl. Add the shredded rotisserie chicken, oranges, cilantro (if using) and the almonds and toss together again. Drizzle the dressing on top, toss and serve!
- For the slightly warm Chinese Chicken Salad: Using a large skillet, heat the remaining sesame oil over medium heat. After a minute or so, add in the shredded rotisserie chicken, carrots and half of the scallions. Mix until heated through and add in the shredded green cabbage and red cabbage and drizzle in half of the dressing and mix again until everything is well coated with the dressing. Sauté for about 3 minutes and remove from the heat and into a large serving dish or bowl.
- Add in the fresh greens and toss together, drizzling with a bit more dressing if desired. Serve and garnish with orange slices, fresh cilantro, sliced almonds and the remaining dressing. Enjoy!
Notes
*I used rotisserie chicken in the recipe as a shortcut but you can certainly roast a chicken, boil your chicken and shred, totally up to you!
**you can also add cashews or peanuts if you prefer!