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Delicious and Healthy Chinese Chicken Salad – Clean Eating Recipe

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This Chinese Chicken Salad recipe is clean eating, but as delicious as the original! The Asian salad dressing is delicious on any type of salad!

Growing up in Hawaii, I have a love of all Asian foods! But once we started eating clean, more than half the food was off limits. So I am going to start attempting to clean up some of my favorite recipes. This Chinese Chicken Salad Recipe is the first!

Healthy Chinese Chicken Salad

Chinese Chicken Salad is a staple in Hawaii. I remember eating it at weddings, first birthday parties, and family get-togethers. Though I no longer live in Hawaii, the dish has become a staple in our house. I even bring it to work potlucks or dinners with friends.

The Asian Salad Dressing is also very versatile. Try it with mixed greens, mandarin oranges, and sliced toasted almonds!

healthy chinese chicken salad

Clean Eating Recipe

It can be difficult to clean up the food I grew up eating. Part of the nostalgia is eating it the way my family would make it. But now that we have been eating clean for years, it is time for me to try to make the traditional dishes healthier. This recipe will be the first one I post, but I will continue to add more. Let me know if you have a favorite dish I should attempt too!

First things first. Traditional Chinese Chicken salad recipes call for crunchy noodles, but they are not considered clean eating. I substituted Soba noodles instead. Soba noodles are made with buckwheat. They are considered clean and the kids also love them! There are several brands, but I recently discovered the Hakubaku Organic Somen and it is my favorite.

hakubaku organic soba

If you are not familiar with soba, this is what it looks like when cooked:

hakubaku organic soba

The Salad

Traditional Chinese chicken salad uses cabbage. I rarely have cabbage on hand and actually, I prefer mixed greens. I recommend the power green mix from Costco which I also mix with purple cabbage to add a little crunch! But romaine lettuce or cabbage would work well too.

making Chinese chicken salad using healthy greens and cabbage

How to assemble Chinese chicken salad

This dish is very easy to make, but there are a few tips and tricks on this one:

  • Make the salad dressing ahead of time. The longer it sits, the better it will taste. If you didn’t have time, make it first, before you start chopping the salad or cooking the chicken
  • You can use leftover chicken. If you don’t have leftovers, boil chicken thighs with fresh ginger for extra flavor!
  • Do not skimp on the cilantro. It really makes the dish!
  • Do not overcook the Soba noodles or they will be mushy. They should be a similar texture to spaghetti noodles.
healthy chinese chicken salad

Other clean eating chicken recipes to try:

healthy chinese chicken salad

Chinese Chicken Salad

Yield: 4 servings
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Additional Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes

This Clean Eating Chinese Chicken Salad recipe is as delicious as the original recipe! The Asian salad dressing can also be used on any type of salad!

Ingredients

  • 1 Pound Chicken (shredded)
  • 1 Head Romaine Lettuce or mixed greens (chopped)
  • 1/4 Head Purple Cabbage (Optional)
  • 2 Cups Celery (Slivered)
  • 2 Bunches Cilantro (Chopped)
  • 1 Tbsp Toasted Sesame Seed (Optional)
  • 1/2 Cup Peanuts (Optional)
  • 1 Package Soba Noodles (Optional)

Salad Dressing

  • 1/2 Cup Olive or Avocado Oil
  • 1/3 Cup Vinegar
  • 1/4 Cup Honey
  • 2 Tbsp Sesame Oil
  • 2 tsp Salt
  • Fresh Cracked Pepper

Instructions

  1. Cook the noodles according to the package. Cool
  2. Put the Soba noodles in a large bowl. Add the lettuce, cabbage, celery and cilantro
  3. Top with shredded chicken
  4. Make the salad dressing. In a small bowl or Pyrex measuring cup, mix all the dressing ingredients. You can serve it immediately but it tastes best when it has a change to sit in the fridge for at least 1 hour, or overnight.
  5. Before serving, whisk the dressing and pour over the salad. Toss gently. Top with optional sesame seeds and peanut

Did you make this recipe?

Please leave a comment on the blog or share a photo on Pinterest

© NaturalDeets
Category: Chicken Recipes
Asian Chicken Salad

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By on February 27th, 2019

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17 thoughts on “Delicious and Healthy Chinese Chicken Salad – Clean Eating Recipe”

  5. This looks absolutely wonderful! Love the clean eating — such a good choice! I’m trying to eat less meat, so I may try to make this without the chicken. I still think it will be delicious based on the ingredients. Thank you for posting the recipe!

    Reply

    • We have naturally started to eat less meat just because we are buying higher quality. It costs more so we buy less, but it is also more satisfying so we don’t want to eat much more. It might be worth a try!

      Reply

  11. 5 stars
    This looks so delicious and refreshing! I love Asian food too and this looks like a great option and it’s clean eating too. Nice job, thanks so much for sharing! 🙂

    Reply

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