Chinese Sesame Chicken Salad is the perfect main dish salad, full of colorful, fresh veggies and chicken and topped with homemade baked wonton chips and sweet and spicy sesame dressing!
Whenever we go out to eat, if there’s a Chinese Chicken Salad on the menu, I get it. I crave the fresh veggies + chicken + slurpy sesame dressing pretty much every day. And restaurants really can’t screw up a salad, ya know? Well, unless they don’t wash the lettuce enough and you find tiny bugs in it. I’ve been there and it wasn’t pleasant at all. 🙁
And while I know yesterday was Chinese New Year, I figured it would be okay to share this Chinese Sesame Chicken Salad with you today because they celebrate it for 10 days in China. So it’s far from over. F’reals. We really have to get more excited about our New Year’s celebrations here, wouldn’t you agree? We’re totally getting jipped.
So let me introduce you to the best Chinese Sesame Chicken Salad in the world. Possibly even in the universe. What makes it the best? I thought you’d never ask. It has colorful, fresh veggies that satisfy the calorie-conscious gal in me. Yep, she exists—even though you’d never know it from the girl who Sunday inhaled two brownies, ice cream, queso, tortilla chips, and whatever else was in front of her with reckless abandon. It also has hearty chicken strips, homemade baked wonton chips (so contemplating Asian nachos now…weird?), and a deliciously sweet and spicy sesame dressing that I could put in my Big Gulp cup and slurp it down like Diet Coke. It’s that good. So whip this salad up and celebrate the remaining 9 days of Chinese New Year without the guilt—with this Chinese Sesame Chicken Salad that makes a hearty and healthy main dish meal.
- Baked Wonton Chips:
- 10 wonton wrappers
- Cooking spray
- Sesame Dressing:
- ¼ cup rice vinegar
- ¼ cup sesame oil
- 2 Tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp toasted sesame seeds*
- 1 tsp red pepper flakes
- ¾ cup canola oil
- 2 tsp sugar
- Salad:
- 1 large head of romaine
- 1 16-oz pkg coleslaw mix
- 6 green onions, sliced
- ½ cup cooked edamame
- 4 stalks celery, sliced
- 1 cup sugar snap peas
- ½ cup shredded carrots
- ½ cup mandarin oranges
- 3 cups cooked chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces or strips
- 1 Tbsp sesame seeds
- Make the wonton chips. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Slice wontons in half diagonally and place on a baking sheet. Spray lightly with cooking spray. Bake for 5 minutes or until golden.
- Make the dressing. Combine all dressing ingredients in a bowl or mason jar. Whisk in bowl or shake in jar until fully mixed (dressing will be a caramel color and sesame seeds will be distributed throughout).
- Assemble the salad. Combine romaine and coleslaw mix in a large bowl. Add remaining veggies and combine. Drizzle mixture with dressing to taste.
- Divide salad onto 4 plates. Top with chicken strips and mandarin oranges. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.
