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.
Crunchy veggies are paired with tender chicken breasts engulfed in a creamy peanut dressing make this Thai salad so delicious!
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.
The peanut dressing 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 for this easy chopped Thai chicken salad.
Ingredients for Thai Chicken Chopped Salad:
Thai Chicken Chopped Salad Ingredients:
Chicken, cabbage (I use both green cabbage and red cabbage), spring greens (or spinach), grated carrot, ripe mango, toasted cashews, and green onions.
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 breasts, store-bought rotisserie chicken, or anything you fancy. Breasts, thighs, whatever you like!
Peanut Dressing Ingredients:
Creamy almond butter or peanut butter, liquid aminos (or soy sauce), rice vinegar, pure maple syrup, garlic, fresh 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 customization, so be sure to evaluate based on what you have on hand and your nutritional needs.
Here are some ways you can customize the recipe.
Recipe Adaptations:
- Use natural almond butter instead of natural peanut butter in the dressing.
- Add your favorite crunchy vegetables to the salad. Celery, red bell pepper, chilies, and/or tomato work well in this Thai chopped salad
- Swap the chicken for steak, shrimp, or salmon.
- Use cane sugar instead of pure maple syrup in the dressing.
- Switch out the rice vinegar, rice wine vinegar, for lime juice in the dressing for some citrus flare.
- Use your favorite greens for the salad. You can go with all green cabbage and/or swap for power greens, spinach, kale, etc.
- Mix in fresh herbs like fresh cilantro or fresh basil to this Thai chicken salad recipe.
- Add more sriracha, chili garlic sauce, hot sauce to the dressing for spicy peanut dressing to your personal taste.
Let’s make this amazing Thai Chicken Chopped Salad recipe!
How to Make Thai Chicken Chopped Salad:
Add the ingredients for the peanut dressing to a small blender and blend until completely combined. Transfer the dressing 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!
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 or large mason jar. Bring it to work with the dressing in a separate container.
And that’s it! No more boring salads!
This Thai chopped chicken salad is a beautiful celebration of Thai flavors and fresh veggies.
Explore more of my favorite salads!
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!
Thai Chicken Chopped Salad
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
Nutrition
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Thanks Julia, it was super yum! I modified it slightly with wasabi seaweed and kale but your inspiration stayed true and that stunning dressing made my day.
Ooh, sounds marvelous! Thank you for sharing, Merry! xo
Round 2 Comments: My wife and I LOVE this salad. It’s not a lot of work and is very satisfying. Keeps well in the fridge, because cabbage is drier than lettuce. We add chopped red pepper and sometimes arugula, though the latter seems to reduce ginger and garlic flavor. Chopped cucumber could be a good add, too, if you want a wetter salad, which is nice in hot weather. Thank you again for the great recipe!
I’m so thrilled to hear you and your wife enjoy it, Elaine! I appreciate you swinging back around to provide feedback. I love the idea of adding peppers, arugula, and cucumber! Sounds delicious with any combination of the three! xoxo
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.
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
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.
Ooh, I love the idea of using cuties! Such a lovely burst of citrus! Thanks so much for sharing your experience! 🙂
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!
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
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.
Thanks so much for reporting back, Alli! I’m so thrilled to hear it. The dressing is my favorite part for sure! xoxo
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!
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
Hi, I can’t seem to figure out what the asterisks are for in the recipe. I wondered if there were notes about substitutions etc? I’m planning to make this for dinner:)
Agh, sorry about that! Here’s what they’re supposed to be:
**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.
Just added them to the recipe card. Thanks so much for catching that!! xoxox
@Julia, thank you!! Looking forward to making this 🙂
Yaaay! Hope you enjoy! xoxo