This fresh, crisp Chinese chicken salad is topped with a homemade salty-sweet Asian dressing and crispy, golden, baked sesame chicken. Healthy comfort food!
This Chinese Chicken Salad is going to change your busy weeknights.
It’s a recipe that actually started as two separate dishes.
I’d make a healthy baked crispy sesame chicken.
And serve a fresh asian salad – with cabbage, mandarin oranges, and peanuts – on the side.
But eventually, I just started topping the salad with the chopped chicken.
And it was two worlds of deliciousness colliding into one completely addictive Chinese Chicken Salad recipe!
The salad has tons of fresh, crisp “crunch” from the cabbage and the peanuts.
To make things easy and save time, I use a fresh prepared, bagged coleslaw mix for the salad.
Bagged coleslaw usually contains purple and green cabbage, plus shredded carrots.
It gives the salad tons of bright color, plus lots of healthy nutrition too.
I top it all off with a salty-sweet Asian inspired dressing with toasted sesame oil, honey, ginger, and a splash of soy sauce.
The healthy baked sesame chicken comes out of the oven golden and crispy on the outside and tender on the inside.
First, I dip the chicken into a marinade of soy sauce and honey.
Then I top it with crispy panko breadcrumbs and sesame seeds.
It’s crispy and savory, with a hint of sweet.
This Chinese chicken salad recipe is easy to throw together on busy weeknights.
After I toss the chicken into the oven to get all golden and crispy, I throw together the salad and homemade dressing.
Then, as soon as the chicken comes out of the oven, a complete meal is on the table!
This Chinese chicken salad is full of flavor, but it’s made with lots of nutritious ingredients too.
This salad has fresh cabbage, bell pepper, mandarin orange, scallions, peanuts, and baked chicken breasts.
It’s crunchy, savory, salty, slightly sweet, fresh, and light.
But it’s somehow also indulgent-tasting comfort food.
I’ve made this recipe a hundred times.
And I love it every time.
Here’s the Recipe for Crispy Sesame Chinese Chicken Salad:
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Crispy Sesame Chinese Chicken Salad
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: Salads
- Cuisine: Asian Inspired
Description
This fresh, crisp Chinese chicken salad is topped with a homemade salty-sweet Asian dressing and crispy, golden, baked sesame chicken. Healthy comfort food!
Ingredients
For The Crispy Sesame Chicken:
- 1 pound pastured, organic, skinless, boneless chicken breasts
- 2 Tablespoons safflower oil
- 1 Tablespoon organic soy sauce
- 1 Tablespoon honey
- 1 cup whole wheat panko breadcrumbs
- 1 Tablespoon sesame seeds
For the Chinese Chicken Salad:
- 8 ounces fresh bagged coleslaw
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 2 mandarin oranges (or tangerines or clementines), peeled and sectioned
- 4 green onions (scallions), white and light green parts thinly sliced
- 1/3 cup salted roasted peanuts, chopped
For the Sesame Ginger Dressing:
- 1/4 cup safflower oil
- 2 Tablespoons toasted sesame oil
- 2 Tablespoons organic soy sauce
- 2 Tablespoons honey
- 2 teaspoons sesame seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
Instructions
To Prepare the Crispy Sesame Chicken:
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Add 1 Tablespon oil plus soy sauce and honey to a large bowl. Whisk until well combined. Set aside.
- Add panko breadcrumbs and sesame seeds to a second large bowl. Stir until well combined. Set aside.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (OR you can use a large casserole dish that has a cover).
- Dip one chicken breast at a time into the honey-soy marinade and then into the panko-sesame breadcrumb mixture.
- Arrange the chicken breasts on the baking sheet (or casserole dish) so that they are evenly spread out on the pan. Cover the chicken with foil (or use the casserole dish cover) and bake in the oven until chicken is still tender but no longer pink in the center, about 20 minutes. (While the chicken is baking in the oven, prepare the salad and homemade dressing.)
- Remove the chicken from the oven and reduce the oven heat to 350 degrees F.
- Remove the foil (or cover) from the chicken. Drizzle about 1 Tablespoon of oil over the top of the chicken breasts (the oil will help the breading to become crispy and golden).
- Place the chicken back in the oven – uncovered – until the panko breading becomes cripsy and golden, about 7 minutes.
- Allow the chicken to rest on the countertop about 5 minutes. Then slice the chicken. (The resting period helps the chicken to retain its juices and tenderness)
To Prepare the Chinese Chicken Salad:
- Divide and arrange all of the Chinese Chicken Salad ingredients onto four serving plates.
- Drizzle on the Sesame Ginger Dressing. Then top with the Crispy Sesame Chicken.
To Prepare the Sesame Ginger Dressing:
- Add all of the Sesame Ginger Dressing ingredients to a bowl. Whisk until well combined.
Notes
- Because the soy sauce contains a lot of sodium, this recipe doesn’t require any salt.
- Sesame seeds burn very easily! So be sure to follow the instructions of leaving the chicken covered for most of the cooking time. And be sure to reduce the oven heat to 350 degrees when you uncover the chicken.
Keywords: healthy, easy, baked chicken, sesame chicken, Asian, chinese chicken salad, salad, cabbage
For More Recipes You Might Love, Check Out:
Skinny Chicken Broccoli Stir Fry
Sesame-Ginger Salmon Avocado Bowls
Avocado-Cucumber Salad with Carrot-Sesame Dressing
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