Thai Chicken Chopped Salad with crunchy cabbage, carrot, toasted cashews, and a delicious creamy sesame ginger peanut dressing. This vibrant, filling salad recipe is that feel-good meal that leaves you energized and happy.
The crunch, the burst of sweet, tangy, creamy flavors, the cooling effect to beat the summer heat, the satisfaction of enjoying a delicious meal loaded with nutrients that feels like you’re doing something devilishly wrong when you’re only doing everything right.
That is this Thai Chicken Chopped Salad in a peanut shell.
Loaded with all that is right with the world, this major crunch salad is perfect for any lunch or dinner, has a fancy sort of vibe to it in spite of being so simple and easy to toss together, and will without a doubt brighten your day.
An incredible placement for leftover chicken and a phenomenal caravan for peanut butter, this Thai Chicken Chopped Salad is easy to adapt based on what you have in the refrigerator.
It comes with a peanut dressing, which is beyond exquisite, so if your eyeballs just perked up at the thought of adding peanut butter to a salad, this one was created on your behalf. 😉
Have you ever had peanut dressing or peanut sauce? Both are marvelous elixirs from heaven and I could just bathe my mouth in either/or.
While I love a traditional peanut dressing made with peanut butter, I also adore an almond butter version. Many folks find almonds to be less inflammatory than peanuts (even if they don’t have a peanut allergy), so if you’ve noticed a difference, feel free to stick with almond butter instead of peanut butter.
Before I get ahead of myself, let’s talk about the ingredients.
Ingredients for Thai Chicken Chopped Salad:
For the Salad: Chicken, cabbage (I use both green and red), spring greens (or spinach), grated carrot, mango, toasted cashews, and green onion.
Use any cooked chicken you’d like! Basically, this salad is a marvelous placement for leftover chicken. Grilled or smoked chicken gives it that added char flavor, but you can go with baked chicken, store-bought rotisserie chicken, or anything you fancy. Breasts, thighs, whatever you like!
For the Dressing: Creamy almond butter or peanut butter, liquid aminos (or soy sauce), rice vinegar, pure maple syrup, garlic, ginger, sriracha (or red chili paste of choice), sesame oil, and avocado oil. This salad dressing is all-things creamy, sweet and tangy with just the right amount of kick to remind you you’re eating something with flair.
Both the salad and the dressing have plenty of options for changeups, so be sure to evaluate based on what you have on hand and your nutritional needs.
Recipe Adaptations:
- Use almond butter instead of peanut butter in the dressing.
- Add your favorite veggies to the salad. Celery, bell pepper, chilies, and/or tomato work well.
- Swap the chicken for steak or salmon.
- Use cane sugar instead of pure maple syrup in the dressing.
- Use your favorite greens for the salad. You can go with all green cabbage and/or swap for power greens, spinach, kale, etc.
If you meal prep your work lunches, make the dressing ahead of time and store it in a jar in the refrigerator. Chop everything for the salad and seal it up in your meal prep bowl to take it with you to work.
More Delicious Summer Salads:
- Baked Salmon Power Bowls with Blueberry Salsa
- Shredded Beef Taco Salad
- A Really Great Summer Salad
- Crispy Mediterranean Chicken Salad with Lemon Herb Tahini Dressing
- California Cobb Salad with Chipotle Avocado Ranch Dressing
- 3-Ingredient Mayo-Free Avocado Tuna Salad
Get your crunch on!
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Thai Chicken Chopped Salad
This vibrant, filling Thai Chicken Chopped Salad recipe is that feel-good meal that leaves you energized and happy!
Ingredients
Thai Chopped Salad:
- 3 cups cooked chicken, chopped
- 3 cups green cabbage, thinly sliced
- 1 cup red cabbage, thinly sliced**
- 2 cups spring greens or spinach, chopped
- 1 cup grated carrot
- 1 large mango, peeled and diced
- ½ cup raw cashews, toasted
- 5 green onions, chopped
Sesame Ginger Almond Butter Dressing:
- ½ cup creamy almond butter or peanut butter
- ¼ cup liquid aminos
- 1/3 cup rice vinegar or fresh lime juice
- 2 Tbsp sesame oil***
- 3 Tbsp avocado oil***
- 2 Tbsp pure maple syrup
- 1 ½ Tbsp sriracha, or more to taste
- 1 small clove garlic, minced
- 2 tsp fresh ginger, peeled and grated
- 2 to 4 Tbsp water for thinner consistency if necessary
Instructions
- Add the ingredients for the peanut dressing to a small blender and blend until completely combined. Transfer to a sealable jar and refrigerate until ready to use. If needed, add 2 to 4 tablespoons of water to the dressing for thinner consistency.
- Add all of the ingredients for the salad to a large bowl and drizzle in desired amount of peanut dressing. Toss until everything is well-coated in dressing. Taste the salad for flavor and add sea salt and/or lemon juice or rice vinegar to taste (or more peanut dressing).
- Serve and enjoy!
Notes
**Go with all green cabbage if you’d like.
***If you’d like, you can use all sesame oil or avocado oil. I use both so that the sesame flavor comes through but isn’t extremely prominent. If you love a lot of sesame flavor, go with all sesame oil (⅓ cup). On the flip side, if you don’t like sesame oil, use ⅓ cup avocado oil instead.
Nutrition Information
Yield 3 Serving Size 1 of 3Amount Per Serving Calories 587Total Fat 22gCarbohydrates 32gFiber 7gSugar 14gProtein 57g
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Diane
Saturday 15th of April 2023
Really high in calories and sugar! Need to make changes to accommodate need for low sugar. What adds the high calorie count? Any recommendations? Thanks.
Julia
Sunday 16th of April 2023
Hi Diane! The calorie count is due to the cashews and dressing, as the fat content is very calorically dense. To make salads lower in calories, you can decrease the amount of dressing or do a combination of dressing and vinegar or lemon juice, which will change the flavor but will lower the amount of calories. You can also omit the cashews. In terms of sugar, mango is very high in fructose and there is also some sweetener in the dressing. You would need to decrease the amount of mango or replace it with a lower sugar fruit such as blueberries. Hope this helps!! xoxo
Beth
Friday 14th of April 2023
I LOVE this salad. Thank you for this recipe! I have been using a little bit of the leftover dressing on my veggies. I think am going to make this again today for some girlfriends. I was too lazy to go get a mango so I just used a few cuties... delicious! I used toasted sesame and avocado oil, it was a perfect.
Julia
Sunday 16th of April 2023
Ooh, I love the idea of using cuties! Such a lovely burst of citrus! Thanks so much for sharing your experience! :)
Elaine
Monday 31st of October 2022
Super recipe! Very satisfying dinner. Our market didn't have mango, so we used fresh pineapple. We added a little cilantro, because we had it. Cashew butter worked great for the dressing. I'm very fussy about dressings and vinegar, but this was perfect on the first try. We had lime juice, so we used some with mostly rice vinegar. We chose toasted sesame oil, since it has more flavor. We were so happy with this last night! Thanks for sharing!
Julia
Monday 31st of October 2022
All of that sounds amazing, Elaine! Thanks so much for swinging back around to share your changes! This is so helpful to others who want to try the same things. xoxox
Alli
Monday 4th of April 2022
Been looking forward to making this for a few days now. Delicious, fresh, springlike recipe for leftover chicken. Added chopped celery and fresh cilantro because they were in the fridge. ; ) Substituted nuts for toasted pumpkin seeds. The dressing was a big hit! I, too, can’t wait to try it on a rice bowl.
Julia
Tuesday 5th of April 2022
Thanks so much for reporting back, Alli! I'm so thrilled to hear it. The dressing is my favorite part for sure! xoxo
Amy
Sunday 3rd of April 2022
This dressing is so good! I made it without the maple syrup and it was still wonderfully sweet. I used both the sesame and avocado oil and it was a perfect balance. I want to use it for everything now, salad dressing, dips, marinade or just eating it straight out of the jar lol.
As for the rest of the salad, it was very light and refreshing. I didn’t have green onions and I’m sure it will be better with them. This is the perfect spring and summer salad. Thank you for sharing!
Julia
Sunday 3rd of April 2022
I'm so thrilled to hear you enjoyed it, Amy! I'm obsessed with the dressing too! I sometimes make a big batch and use it on bowls in addition to salads :) xo