This light and Healthy Chinese Chicken Salad shines with a sesame ginger dressing that’s soy-free, sugar-free, and free of canola oil. It’s a super-easy salad that’s filling and nutritious! It happens to be paleo too!
Chinese chicken salad has always been one of my favorites. The crunchy veggies, the mouthwatering zestiness, and the classic Chinese sweet-and-savory flavor profile. This tasty salad truly has it all.
But unfortunately, restaurant-prepared Chinese chicken salad tends to include a bunch of ingredients I try to avoid. We’re talking soy, sugar, and canola oil at the bare minimum.
With this in mind, I’ve created a paleo-friendly (and healthy!) Chinese chicken salad that you can easily make at home.
Now, there are some differences here that I’ve changed from the more classic recipes you might find. I use romaine lettuce instead of cabbage, and I’ve switched out soy and canola oil for gut-friendly coconut aminos and avocado oil.
The sesame ginger dressing is impossibly light and full of bold Asian flavors, while the orange-marinated chicken is subtly sweet and irresistibly juicy. Add that to a pile of juicy fruits and veggies, and you’ve got a world-beating salad to tuck into.
So, let’s dig in!
Ingredients for Healthy Chinese Chicken Salad
Here’s everything you’ll need to make my paleo Chinese chicken salad. It’s a long list, but I’m betting that you have most of this in your cupboard already!
Chicken Breast: Boneless, skinless chicken breast is at the heart of this salad. It picks up tons of flavor from the marinade, and you can add it to the salad warm or cold!
Avocado Oil: Avocado oil is miles healthier than canola oil. It has loads of healthy fats and vitamins, and tastes better too! We’ll be using this for both the dressing and the marinade.
Orange Juice: Fresh orange juice adds a sweet, tangy flavor to our marinade. We’re going for the same vibe as my healthy orange chicken recipe: All the taste of the classic takeout dish, but with none of the bad stuff!
Ground Cumin and Ground Ginger: These warming, fiery spices round off the marinade. The peppery heat of the ginger contrasts nicely with the sweetness of the orange juice, and the earthy cumin lends the chicken a grounded, deep base note.
Rice Vinegar: Much less acidic than cider or white wine vinegar, rice vinegar has a clean, tangy sweetness that’s perfect for our sesame-ginger dressing.
Sesame Oil: The sesame component of our dressing. You don’t need much of this – sesame oil is very strong!
Honey: Adds a different kind of sweetness that works beautifully with the fruitier orange flavors in this dish.
Coconut Aminos: A gut-friendly alternative to soy sauce, coconut aminos are responsible for the umami flavor of our dressing. Liquid aminos work too if you can’t find coconut!
Fresh Ginger: Minced ginger is far more potent than the ground ginger we used for our marinade. It dissolves into the dressing, adding a fresh, fiery flavor.
Garlic: Brings a savory tang to our Chinese chicken salad. Garlic is also fabulous at elevating the other intense flavors in this dish!
Sesame Seeds: We’ll blitz some sesame seeds into the dressing and toss a handful in the salad, too.
Baby Spinach: I’ve opted for baby spinach over the more traditional cabbage for my take on Chinese chicken salad. It adds a great deal of Vitamins, minerals, and iron!
Red Cabbage: Sweet, crunchy red cabbage adds even more color and texture to our dish.
Avocado: One of my favorite salad ingredients. Creamy, delicious, and full of healthy fats! Feel free to swap it with olive oil.
Clementines: I put whole clementine segments in my Chinese chicken salad! I’m a huge fan of fruit in salads, and these bite-sized segments pair so well with the orange-marinated chicken.
Slivered Almonds: For a subtly nutty crunch.
Sea Salt: To taste!
Recipe Customizations
- You can replace the spinach with romaine or with half a green cabbage if you want to go down the traditional Chinese salad route. Napa cabbage works great too.
- Why not toss in some more veggies? Carrots, kale, green onions, bell pepper, cucumber, tomatoes, or radishes all work beautifully in this salad.
- Don’t like chicken? Replace it with my Crispy Honey-Glazed Salmon!
- Make this recipe low-FODMAP by swapping the honey for pure maple syrup and omitting the garlic.
- Following Whole30? Simply leave out the honey!
How to Make My Healthy Chinese Chicken Salad
First, place the chicken breast in a zip lock bag along with the avocado oil, orange juice, cumin, ginger, and a pinch of sea salt. Move it around so the chicken is well-coated, then refrigerate for between 15 minutes and 6 hours.
After the chicken has marinated, bake in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 25-35 minutes. Otherwise, just make sure the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
While the chicken is baking, add the dressing ingredients to a small blender and blitz until combined.
When the chicken is cooked, rest it on the side for 15 minutes, then chop it on a cutting board.
Cut up your vegetables and place them in a large bowl. Then, add the diced chicken and the dressing.
Toss until everything is well-coated, and serve.
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 12 hours. This salad is best when served fresh!
Recipe Tips
- You can use leftover cooked chicken or leftover rotisserie chicken to cut down on meal prep!
- This Chinese chicken salad recipe makes two generous main portions or up to four side dishes. Consider doubling the quantities if you want to enjoy this as an entrée for more than two people.
- Use a meat thermometer to check that the chicken is cooked through. Pull it when the center of the thickest part reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit!
- Remove the outside membrane from the clementine slices for the best texture.
Crunchy, zesty, and full of sweet and savory flavors, this paleo Chinese chicken salad is tough to beat. Let me know in the comments section if you enjoyed it!
Blown away by this healthy Chinese chicken salad? Here are more complete entrée salad ideas for you to try!
More Healthy Salad Recipes
- California Cobb Salad with Chipotle Avocado Ranch Dressing
- Crunchy Quinoa Cabbage Broccoli Salad
- Avocado Pesto Tuna Salad with Sun-Dried Tomatoes
- Crunchy Taco Salad with Spiced Ground Turkey
Healthy Chinese Chicken Salad
Ingredients
Orange Marinated Chicken:
- 1 large boneless skinless chicken breast
- 1 Tbsp avocado oil
- 3 Tbsp orange juice
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
Sesame Ginger Dressing:
- 1/2 cup avocado oil
- 1/4 cup rice vinegar
- 1 Tbsp sesame oil
- 1 Tbsp honey or pure maple syrup
- 3 Tbsp coconut aminos or liquid aminos
- 1 tsp fresh ginger minced
- 1 large clove garlic minced*
- 2 tsp sesame seeds
- 1/2 tsp sea salt to taste
For the Salad:
- 4 cups baby spinach or romaine hearts, chopped
- 1 cup red cabbage thinly sliced
- 1 large avocado pitted and diced
- 4 clementines peeled, membranes removed
- 1/3 cup slivered almonds
Instructions
Prepare the Chicken:
- Place the chicken breasts in a zip lock bag along with the ingredients for the marinade. Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes, but ideally 4 to 6 hours.
- When you're ready to bake the chicken, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and place chicken in a casserole dish with the marinade. Bake 25-35 minutes, or until cooked through and the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees F.
- Once the chicken has finished baking, allow it to rest 15 minutes, then chop it on a cutting board. Note: You can chill the chicken first rather than serving it warm. I’m fine with eating it slightly warm fresh out of the oven, but chilled is nice too!
Make the Dressing:
- While the chicken is baking, prepare the salad dressing. Add the ingredients for the dressing to a small blender and blend until combined. You can also whisk the ingredients together or put them in a jar and shake if you don’t have a small blender.
Make the Salad:
- Chop the vegetables and place them in a large serving bowl. Add the chicken and pour in desired amount of dressing. Toss everything together until it’s all well-coated in dressing and serve!
Just an FYI to add to the modifications, Avocado are high in fodmaps so they would also need to be omitted to make this recipe low-fodmap!
It does look “healthy.” I’m going to try it! Thanks
Great! Let me know what you think, Diane! xoxoxo
Delicious summer salad! I love the dressing. I omitted the chicken and added a handful of baby kale leaves to make it a side salad to grilled steak.
This is excellent! I made it with grilled salmon and it was so yummy (I did sub tamari for the aminos and mandarins for the clementines). Thanks for the great healthy recipe!
Ooh la la! The grilled salmon version sounds amazing! I bet tamari tastes marvelous in the dressing. Thanks for sharing your experience! xo 😀
You should consider the implications of titling this recipe “healthy Chinese chicken salad” as if to say the American-Chinese food people love is real Chinese food. Just call it paleo Chinese chicken salad. Traditional chinese food is healthy.
Hi Charlie,
I appreciate the feedback and understand the concern with using the word, “healthy.” Chinese Chicken Salad isn’t actually Chinese by origin, and the intention wasn’t to imply all Chinese food is unhealthy. I understand you’re trying to teach a lesson here but it’s important to remember the intent rather than getting caught up in the details. Hope you try the salad. xo
@Charlie Mcdougal,
Don’t get your knickers into twist over this. There are more important things to worry about at the moment.
Paolo