Asian Chicken Salad

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If you like the sesame chicken salad from Panera, you’ll love our Asian chicken salad! Made with fresh, healthy ingredients and a homemade sesame salad dressing, this recipe is the perfect summer lunch.

Asian Chicken Salad Recipe Ingredients

Our Asian chicken salad also features homemade sesame chicken, which you can easily make with just 5 ingredients:

• Chicken breast
• Soy sauce
• Rice vinegar
• Minced garlic
• Sesame oil

To assemble the salad, you’ll need: 

• Chopped hearts of romaine
• Red cabbage
• Almonds
• Shredded carrots
• Scallions
• Toasted sesame seeds
• Wonton strips
• Sesame salad dressing (see below)

Panera Inspired Asian Sesame Salad Dressing Recipe

Since we wanted to make a Panera style Asian chicken salad at home, we came up with our own version of their sesame dressing. It’s not quite the same as Panera’s, but we’ll argue it’s even more flavorful – and it’s made with less ingredients!

Here’s what you’ll need to make the sesame salad dressing:

• Rice vinegar
• Hoisin sauce
• Sesame oil
• Low sodium soy sauce

That’s it – just 4 ingredients! And it’s super easy to make, too. All you need is a jar and a measuring spoon:

1. Add all the ingredients to a mason jar (tip: you can use the measurement lines on the jar to measure out the rice vinegar and hoisin sauce).
2. Seal the lid tightly and shake to combine.
3. Refrigerate until needed.

How To Make A Healthy Asian Chicken Salad

It’s easy to make this Asian chicken salad recipe in just about 30 minutes. Start by prepping the chicken and chopping all the veggies while the chicken marinates, then simply cook the chicken and assemble the salad.

Here is a step-by-step guide to making our Asian chicken salad:

1. First, prepare the sesame chicken. Slice the chicken into bite-size pieces, then combine in a bowl with the soy sauce, rice vinegar, minced garlic, and sesame oil. Marinate at room temperature for 20 minutes. 
2. Prep the salad ingredients while the chicken marinates. Chop the romaine, cabbage, and almonds and slice the scallions. Toast the sesame seeds in a small frying pan over medium heat until golden brown, 5 to 8 minutes or so, giving them a shake every few minutes to ensure even toasting. Mix up the salad dressing if you haven’t done so already.
3. Next, cook the chicken in a wok or large frying pan over medium-high heat for about 4 to 5 minutes, or until cooked through. Drain the excess liquid, and set the chicken aside.
4. Finally, assemble the salad. Layer romaine and cabbage as a base, and top with chicken, almonds, carrots, scallions, toasted sesame seeds, and wonton strips. Drizzle with sesame dressing and serve immediately.

Asian Sesame Chicken Salad Serving Suggestions

This healthy salad is so satisfying, you can serve it for either lunch or dinner – one of the reasons we love salad recipes with chicken! It’ll fill you up without weighing you down, and it’s so flavorful you won’t mind having salad for your main course.

This recipe is also great for your weekly meal prep. Cook a large batch of chicken at the beginning of the week, prep all the produce and salad toppings, and partially assemble a few salads for easy refrigerator meals. Here are our recommendations on how to meal prep these Asian chicken salads:

• Mix together the romaine, cabbage, carrots, and scallions to cut down on some of the work later on in the week.
• Store the chicken and the salad dressing in separate containers in the fridge.
• Store the almonds, sesame seeds, and wonton strips in separate containers at room temperature.
• When you’re packing lunch for the day or ready to eat, add the chicken, almonds, sesame seeds and wonton strips to the pre-mixed veggies. Drizzle with sesame dressing and enjoy!

Storing Leftovers

If you have any leftover salad, we recommend storing some of the ingredients separately to prevent things from getting soggy. Store the chicken, salad dressing, almonds, sesame seeds, and wonton strips all in separate containers. (The romaine, cabbage, carrots, and scallions can get mixed together if you want – see our notes on meal prep above!).

The chicken and sesame dressing will keep in the fridge for up to 5 days. Store the almonds, sesame seeds, and wonton strips at room temperature. When you want to eat the leftovers, you can either assemble everything cold or reheat the chicken. Warm it in the microwave for about 30 seconds per serving, or in a small frying pan over medium heat for 5 to 8 minutes.