Thai Chopped Salad with Chicken

Our Thai chopped salad is loaded with healthy veggies, shredded chicken, and the best healthy peanut salad dressing you'll ever taste! A terrific meal prep lunch that's 344 calories per serving comes together in just 20 minutes. It's a WHOLE LOTTA YUM!

 

I don't know about you, but whenever I go to buy a premade salad at the grocery store such as Trader Joe's or order a main dish salad in a restaurant, it's almost always a Thai chicken salad with a peanut dressing. Now you can make that popular salad at home for cheaper, plus it's even healthier! We skip the crunchy noodles to lighten things up and you won't miss them one bit.

We highly recommend that you serve the Thai chopped salad with our 52 calorie 15-minute low carb egg drop soup!

And if you on the lookout for more shredded chicken salad recipes, you'll also love our shredded chicken salad with cranberries or our BBQ chicken sweet potato bowls.

Ingredient list

We sometimes love to purchase pre-shredded veggies and bought pre-cooked chicken to make this recipe even faster.

shredded green cabbage & shredded purple cabbage - the 2 colors of cabbage is really for color, you can just use one variety for simplicity and cost. We also love to use the pre-shredded coleslaw mix (without dressing) which also includes shredded carrots.
shredded carrots - we purchased pre-shredded carrots
red bell pepper - a different color such as green, yellow, or orange can be swapped
cucumber
1 lb shredded chicken (from a rotisserie chicken or precooked Trader Joe's chicken slices). If you prefer to cook your own chicken at home, we can help you with that!
chopped fresh cilantro
green onions
crushed peanuts -to garnish the salad

Dressing

natural peanut butter - peanut butter made without added sugar
coconut aminos or wheat-free tamari - you can use soy sauce as a substitute if you aren't eating gluten-free.
fresh lime juice - do not substitute concentrate, fresh is best!
rice vinegar - not rice wine vinegar!
sweetener (honey, agave, or monk fruit - to taste)
sesame oil
ginger paste - we love the frozen ginger paste cubes
red pepper flakes- feel free to turn up the heat even more

** Please see the recipe card at the bottom of the post for the exact quantities **

Dietary swaps

• Vegan- you can leave the chicken out of the salad for a Thai chopped salad side dish or you can use cooked seitan instead. Also swap the honey for coconut sugar, maple syrup, or agave nectar.
• Gluten Free- the recipe is naturally gluten-free as long as you use wheat-free tamari or coconut aminos and not soy sauce in the dressing
• Keto/Low carb- To lower the carbs, reduce or eliminate the carrots from the salad and use monk fruit or erythritol to taste in the dressing instead of honey to reduce the carbs from the 16 net carbs stated in the recipe card.

How to Make Thai Chicken Peanut Salad

Make the Dressing

To make the dressing, in a small bowl combine the peanut butter, coconut aminos, lime juice, rice vinegar, sweetener, sesame oil, ginger paste, and red pepper flakes. Add 3-4 tablespoon of water to thin out the dressing to the preferred consistency.

Assemble the Salad

In a large bowl, toss the cabbages, carrots, red bell pepper, cucumber, chicken, cilantro, and green onions. If you're serving the salad immediately, add the salad dressing and garnish the finished dish with chopped cilantro and crushed peanuts.

To Meal Prep

If you're eating the Thai peanut salad as a meal prep lunch, store the dressing separately in a small dish. The salad itself will keep for 3 days in the fridge.

The recipe in total makes 12 cups of salad, each serving is 6 cups at 344 calories per esrving. The calories in the recipe card allow for 2 tablespoon of dressing per person as a light coat, if you have extra calories 3 tablespoon of dressing is terrific too.

Recipe notes

• Instead of slicing two kinds of cabbage and shredding carrots, simply buy a bag of pre-shredded coleslaw mix that's 5 cups of salad.
• For simplicity, we used the sliced roast chicken slices from Trader Joe's and highly recommend them! They're healthier and less salty than rotisserie chicken. Rotisserie chicken also works of course or you can boil chicken breasts in chicken broth and slice the chicken yourself.
• The recipe makes a total of 12 cups of salad and 1 cup of dressing. Per serving is 2 cups of salad and 2-3 tablespoon of dressing.

Common Questions

More Shredded Chicken Salad Recipes

• Chicken salad with cranberries
• BBQ chicken sweet potato bowls
• Chicken taco salad
• Greek salad bowl with chicken