Asian Peanut Chicken Salad
Do yourself a favor and STOP RIGHT THERE and taste a bite of this Asian Peanut Chicken Salad!
Crunchy cabbage, carrots, edamame, mandarin oranges, honey roasted cashews, shredded rotisserie chicken tossed in the delectable homemade peanut dressing that will make you lick your bowl clean.
A healthy, easy (20 minutes total, no cook!) and yummy side or main dish that will make you love your salads like you have never loved a salad before.
Why Asian Peanut Chicken Salad is awesome
My favorite part of this dish? Oh there are too many.
That crunch. That flavor-bursting sauce. The fresh ingredients. How it keeps me full but don’t make me feel yucky in my tummy.
The way a truly legit salad makes me feel after I eat it, a.k.a complete satisfaction.
Also, let’s pause for a second because do you realize what this also means? No cooking is required in this recipe.
For real right?!?
No need to turn on the hot burner or oven. Just blend that yum sauce, cut up (or be like me and buy pre-shredded…because laziness happens) veggies, shred some store-bought rotisserie chicken, toss in the other ingredients, and viola, dinner is serve.
This recipe also screams meal prep magic and leftover dreams come true. Just be sure to store the sauce on the side and only toss it into the salad when you are ready to eat them to avoid the veggies turning mushy.
How to make Peanut Dressing
My favorite peanut dressing ever. I seriously can just drink this thing.
In fact, I like it so much that in addition to this salad, I use it as a dipping sauce, and sometimes drizzle it on rice noodles…oh the places you’ll go if you let your imagination run wild with this peanut dressing.
What’s even better is, it is a combination of easy-to-find ingredients: peanut butter (preferably salt and sugar free), soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, cilantro, honey, sugar, water, and a pinch of salt.
You should be able to find all of these ingredients in most regular grocery stores, if not, check out the affiliate links attached.
Blend the ingredient together and feel free to add a little more (or less) water to adjust the consistency to your liking.
So easy, right?!? The only thing complex is the gorgeous flavor it yields.
Here comes the fun part: drizzle the gorgeous sauce all over the veggies like you mean business.
The peanut dressing is a mixture of salty, sweet, nutty and tangy. The veggies and peanuts gives it a nice crunch while the mandarin oranges produces the subtle sweetness that rounds up the dish perfectly.
I added chicken in there for the protein, but I omit it if I want a lighter, vegetarian version of this dish.
As for the cashews, I like to grab the honey roasted kind for this dish, because that hint of sweetness goes well with the flavors. Regular cashews will do the job as well, if that is what you have, or you prefer less sweetness.
Variations of this salad!
One of my favorite things about this Asian Peanut Chicken Salad recipe is that it is super versatile! Here are other ingredients (and garnishes) to add to or use in place of!
- Lettuce (iceberg, romain etc)
- Avocados
- Crunchy wontons strips
- Peanuts/almonds/other nuts!
- Green onions
- Sesame seeds
The sky’s the limit, people! 😉
Grab a fork and dig into this delicious Asian Peanut Chicken Salad!!!
Other Asian-Inspired Meals on the blog!
- Simple Thai Noodle Bowl
- Slow Cooker Asian Shredded Pork
- Baked Salmon Sushi Bowl
- Miso Soy Glazed Salmon
- Steak Fried Rice
- Shrimp Stir Fried Noodles
- Ramen Noodle Stir Fry
- Sweet and Sour Chicken
- Mee Goreng Mamak (Malaysian Fried Noodles)
- Kung Pao Shrimp
- Tom Yum Fried Noodles
- Chinese Barbecue Pork
- Baked Cream Cheese Wontons
Other Salad Recipes!
- Asian Salmon Salad with Ginger Soy Dressing
- Greek Cucumber Salad
- Crispy Chicken Salad with Honey Mustard BBQ Dressing
- Strawberry Spinach Bacon Salad with Lemon Maple Dressing
- Caprese Salad with Avocado
- Salmon Cobb Salad (by my friend Tania at Cooking for my Soul!)
DID YOU ENJOY THIS RECIPE? Please comment below and give us a 5-star rating! This will help others find this recipe on Google and Pinterest. We very much appreciate your help! 🤍
Asian Peanut Chicken Salad
Ingredients
- ~6 oz cabbage shredded
- 1 1/2 cups carrots shredded
- 1 cup edamame frozen
- 1-2 cups canned mandarin oranges drained
- 1 cup honey roasted cashews
- 1 cup rotisserie chicken shredded, or more
Peanut Dressing
- 1/2 cup peanut butter salt and sugar free
- 2 tbsp rice vinegar
- 2 tbsp honey
- 2 tbsp sesame oil
- 2 tbsp sugar
- ~2 tbsp cilantro packed, plus more for garnish
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- ~2 tbsp water adjust accordingly
- a pinch of salt adjust accordingly
Instructions
- In a blender or food processor, combine all the ingredients under “Peanut Dressing”. Add more water if needed to achieve desired consistency. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine shredded cabbage, shredded carrots, shelled edamame (microwave for 10-20 seconds if it is frozen), mandarin oranges honey roasted cashews, and rotisserie chicken. Optional: add additional cilantro as garnish.
- Highly recommend serving with dressing on the side. Only add dressing when ready to eat! Enjoy!
Wow, this one is a winner! Great blend of textures and crunchiness(es?) and flavors and goodness. The peanut sauce, yum! And more than enough for two piggy people to have extra dollops on some substantial bowls of the Asian Peanut Chicken Salad. I wondered about the honey *and* the sugar, but the flavor of the sauce was not noticeably sweet, and the two sweet tastes were offset perfectly by the soy sauce and the peanut butter. Because this was for dinner, I did serve it over rice, but it would have been fine on its own.. Sadly I did not have the cashews so just used a small handful of peanuts. It was delicious without the cashews, next time I will be sure to have some! Definitely making this one again.
Thank you so much for the kind review! I am SO HAPPY that you like this! I absolutely LOVE the peanut dressing too, and is definitely the star of this dish!! Thank you so much for making this and letting me know what you think!
This looks and sounds fantastic! How many servings are in this recipe?
Thank you! I would say about 3? And 2 if you are really hungry…. I hope you give it a try! 🙂