Light and healthy Paleo Chinese Chicken Salad with sesame ginger dressing that is soy-free, sugar-free, and free of canola oil. This easy salad is filling and nutritious!
Chinese Chicken Salad has always been one of my favorites – I love the crunch, the zestiness, the sweet and savory combination, and the fact that it is so nice and filling!
I have found Chinese Chicken Salad in restaurants to include ingredients I try to avoid (such as soy, sugar, canola oil, etc). So when the craving hits, I tend to make it at home rather than ordering out.
I find this paleo version of Chinese Chicken Salad to be so refreshing yet filling!
As you can see, I do my Chinese Chicken Salad differently than the classic. I use romaine lettuce instead of green cabbage.
I often chop up spinach and add it too! I do enjoy a good cabbage salad, but sometimes it’s just a bit too much to chew through, so I find romaine to be a bit more appealing.
If you’re a true lover of cabbage, feel free to change it up accordingly!
I’ve also been known to add spinach and grated carrot, like so:
How to Make Paleo Chinese Chicken Salad:
Start by marinating the chicken. Simply 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. After the chicken has marinated, bake it in the oven – I do 30 to 40 minutes (depending on the thickness of the chicken) at 350 degrees F.
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.
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!
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!
Recipe Adaptations:
- Use leftover cooked chicken or rotisserie chicken to omit some of the meal prep.
- This recipe serves 2 generously or up to 4 people if you’re serving something with it. Consider doubling the recipe if you want to make this an entree for more than two people.
- Replace the romaine with half of a green cabbage or 5 ounces baby spinach.
- Add more veggies, like carrot, kale, cucumber, tomato, radishes, etc.
- Instead of chicken, serve the salad with Crispy Honey-Glazed Salmon.
- Make this Low-FODMAP by swapping the honey for pure maple syrup in the dressing and omitting the garlic.
- Omit the honey to make Whole30.
Additional Entrée 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
- Shrimp Taco Salad with Avocado Chimichurri Dressing
Get your crunch on!
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If you make this Healthy Chinese Chicken Salad, please feel free to share a photo and tag @The.Roasted.Root on Instagram!
Paleo 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
- 2 tsp honey
- 3 Tbsp coconut aminos or liquid aminos
- 1 tsp minced ginger
- 1 clove garlic minced*
- 2 tsp sesame seeds
- 1/2 tsp sea salt to taste
For the Salad:
- 4 romaine hearts chopped
- 1 cup red cabbage thinly sliced
- 1 large avocado pitted and diced
- 4 clementines peeled
- 1/3 cup slivered almonds
- 2 tsp sesame seeds
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 30 to 40 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