A super easy and healthy asian chicken salad to fill you up this summer. Filled with carrots, cabbage, pineapple, cucumber, green onion, romaine, edamame, peanuts and tender chicken. Totally satisfying.
Asian food. Good heavens, I’m already drooling at the thought of it. It’s a love I’ve loved for as long as I can remember and I’ll get to that but first, the salad.
I created this Asian Chicken Salad last year and every time I make it I always forget how much it makes; like a family of 100, just kidding, but easily 6-8. It’s booming with gorgeous color, it’s such a vibrant salad! I used to make homemade dressing for this but to save time I buy Panera’s asian vinaigrette now.
This asian chicken salad is a healthy salad and a great option for a hot summer day or a cold summer day, really any day it’s a good idea to make this. I love all the different textures it offers, and how much crunch it has! Who wants a soggy salad? Not me! An easy trick to speed up the recipe is to use some leftover chicken from a whole chicken or even grab a rotisserie chicken from the store. To kick it up a notch try adding pineapple, it’s tangy bite makes this salad a real game changer.
As a kid, I lived in a really small town in Alaska — there really wasn’t much as far as restaurants go. But in Phoenix, everyone is spoiled with more than a lifetime of restaurant choices.
My parents used to take my brother and I to a place in town called The Peking Garden. The sweetest family owned it and I went to school with their kids. I can still remember the smell of the restaurant, like won ton soup and fortune cookies, the memory is still so fresh even though its been almost 20 years since I’ve been there. And I always got the chicken chow mein. It was my favorite place to eat and I’ve never found another restaurant that came close.
Sadly, The Peking Garden closed a few years ago, but I’m forever thankful to the Tzou family for creating delicious food and making a fan out of me.
Easy and Healthy Asian Chicken Salad
Ingredients
- 1 lb chicken thighs seasoned with salt and pepper
- 1 romaine bunch
- 1 cucumber
- 2 carrots
- purple cabbage small
- 2 green onions
- Frozen edamame half a bag
- 1/2 C. peanuts
- 1 C. pineapple chunks
Instructions
- After you’ve cut up each ingredient, throw it in your bowl!
- Remove romaine from the stem and slice it thin across the wider side.
- Slice up the cucumber (see tip below).
- Slice up the cabbage.
- Cut the cabbage in half, and then in half again, cut out the core, lay the cabbage on its side on your cutting board and cut with the grain in thin strips.
- Shred the carrots.
- Slice the green onions thinly, the whole thing.
- Cut up your pineapple into small chunks.
- Add the peanuts.
- By now your chicken breast should be cooled off a bit
- Chop it up and throw it in your bowl!
- Season with a pinch of salt and some ground pepper.
- Give everything a good toss.
- Add your dressing once everyone has served themselves, this way you can use the extras for lunch without it getting soggy.
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