Napa Chicken Salad with Sesame Dressing Recipe

This is a simple and delicious salad recipe that includes Napa Chicken, carrots, green onion and fresh cilantro. The sesame dressing adds the perfect amount of flavor to this refreshing meal!

The “oriental chicken salad recipe” is a delicious, easy to make appetizer that can be served as a meal or as an accompaniment. The ingredients are simple and the dressing is amazing!

Napa Chicken Salad with Sesame Dressing Recipe

This Napa Chicken Salad is loaded with crunch! Fresh napa cabbage, juicy rotisserie chicken, a quick homemade sesame dressing, and crunchy cashews, fried wonton strips, dry ramen noodles, crispy fried onions, or sesame sticks…the possibilities are endless!

Napa-Chicken-Salad-with-Sesame-Dressing-Recipe

Who’s in the mood for a new salad craze? Oh, that’s right, we’re in the same boat. Actually, we’ve already arrived. Welcome!

CRUNCHED TO THE MAX with handfuls of cashews, fried wonton strips, dry ramen noodles, crispy fried onions, or sesame sticks…really whatever wonderful cruncher you can find Or…dare we say…every* delectable cruncher you can come across? We are not going to pass judgment.

Make the most of your very crunchy, super fresh napa chicken salad. So easy to make and so wonderful.

In this article, you’ll find everything you need to make a Napa Chicken Salad.

This Napa Chicken Salad’s Ingredients

The ingredient list for this beauty is rather short, yet each item has its own distinct taste and texture. The sauce is sweet, but it also has a good acidity and depth to it. We can’t get enough of the salad build since it’s a chomp-fest. This is what you’ll need!

All of the salad crunchers and fillers:

  • napa cabbage, shredded
  • onions, green
  • rotisserie chicken, shredded
  • cashews
  • fried wonton strips (our favorite and easiest, but there are other possibilities!)
  • seeds of sesame

Sesame dressing created at home:

  • Vegetable oil is a good neutral oil (avocado oil is also good if you like that taste!)
  • a sugar substitute (granulated sugar, maple syrup, or coconut sugar)
  • vinegar made from rice
  • sauce de soja
  • sesame seed oil
  • salt

You can play around with the dressing flavors to whatever you love best. Switch up the sweetener or scale/omit the sesame seed oil and rice vinegar, though they’re such a nice varied flavor boost that both are a must around here!

Napa Cabbage: What Is It and Where Can I Get It?

If you’re unfamiliar with napa cabbage, it’s an oblong-shaped, thinner green cabbage with a more variable texture that includes both delicate leafiness and crunchy sections. It’s also a little sweeter and gentler. Napa cabbage is a staple element in East Asian cuisine and is native to China (it’s also known as Chinese cabbage). It’s fantastic for stir-frying, stewing, braising, grilling, and fermenting (hello kimchi! ), but it’s also good fresh and thinly sliced in salads like this one.

It’s widely accessible, so you shouldn’t have any problem locating it, but if you’re in a panic, savoy cabbage or white cabbage would work well as a replacement.

Napa Cabbage Cleaning Instructions

Because Napa cabbage isn’t as tightly balled as typical green cabbage, you’ll need to get in between the leaves to shake away the dirt. Pulling the leaves from the stem, cleaning them well, stacking them, then meticulously slicing them very thin is the recommended approach over here.

Napa Cabbage Cutting Techniques

You may also use a mandoline if you don’t want to stack the leaves to slice them very finely by hand. Simply slice the cabbage head first, then immerse the shreds in water for a few minutes to remove any debris (similar to how you clean leeks), however this one seemed a little more unpleasant since napa cabbage isn’t as solid as ordinary cabbage.

We also like to utilize the center of the head since it has some of the tougher crunchier white sections as well as some of the leafier, more delicate green bits, so we lopped off the bottom core and floppier tops and proceeded from there!

Let’s get this party started!

Prepare for a really nice texture party now that it’s been cleaned and trimmed! Cutting and frying the wonton strips takes a little additional effort, but you’ll be glad you did. Furthermore, it comes together fast because to the rotisserie chicken and just a few ingredients on the chop list!

  1. Chop. Use your preferred method to shred the cabbage and chop the onions, green and then that little mixture will keep in an airtight container for several days, yay! Shred your rotisserie bird.
  2. Shake. Toss all of the dressing ingredients into a jar, put on your favorite music, then shake-dance to it.
  3. Serve. Toss the cabbage mixture with the chicken, cashews, wontons, and a generous dressing splash. Sprinkle some extra green onion and seeds of sesame on top for fun and flavor!

White hand pouring a jar of dressing into a bowl of salad

Fried Wonton Strips: A Step-by-Step Guide

To make your own wonton strips, just tear wonton wrappers into strips and cook them in a little amount of oil over low heat; drain on paper towels and season with salt. That concludes our discussion. It was really fast and so well worth it!

Fair warning: it’s perfectly conceivable that you’ll get ready to toss and serve your salad only to discover that you’ve devoured every last one of those crispy, salty, delectably snackable tiny fried wonton strips, and then whoops. Fortunately, they’re simple to produce, so you can get right back into it.

Other Salad Crunchies & Add-Ins to Try

Crumbled-up dry ramen noodles (yep, those! from the container! ), sesame sticks, crispy chow mein noodles, or even those crispy fried onions are all good alternatives for crunch and flavor.

Do you want to add even more green to the mix? Edamame or avocado are excellent choices. Perhaps a little shrimp would be a good way to change up the protein? Yum. Have fun with it.

How Should This Salad Be Stored?

And, as if you needed another reason to enjoy this salad, everything keeps nicely in separate containers for several days, making it an excellent meal prep choice that you can throw together and eat any day of the week. DREAMBOAT.

Napa cabbage salad in a bowl with a fork and cashews on the side

Frequently Asked Questions about Napa Chicken Salad

What additional protein sources might be suitable for this salad?

Shrimp would be a fantastic addition! Edamame would be a great vegetarian choice!

What is a good neutral oil to use for the dressing?

Because vegetable oil is flavorless, it works nicely here. However, if you don’t mind the flavor of avocado oil, it works well here as well!

What should I do with the dressing that’s left over?

This makes a huge batch of dressing that will last through at least 10 cups of napa cabbage, shredded! Great to keep in the fridge for lunches throughout the week, or toss altogether at once for a big dinner party or potluck-style salad.

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Description

This Napa Chicken Salad is loaded with crunch! Fresh napa cabbage, juicy rotisserie chicken, a quick homemade sesame dressing, and crunchy cashews, fried wonton strips, dry ramen noodles, crispy fried onions, or sesame sticks…the possibilities are endless! 


Salad with Napa Chicken:

  • 1 washed, trimmed, and shredded head of napa cabbage (about 10 cups)
  • 1 bunch of onions, green, finely chopped
  • rotisserie chicken, shredded (as much as you want)
  • 1 pound cashews
  • 1 cup crunch – fried wonton strips, crispy fried onions, or dry ramen noodles smashed up
  • seeds of sesame (optional)

Dressing with sesame seeds:

  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil or avocado oil + 1/2 cup (see FAQs)
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar or maple syrup
  • apple cider vinegar, 3 tblsp.
  • 2 tablespoons sauce de soja
  • 2 tablespoons sesame seed oil (to taste)
  • season with salt to taste

  1. Toss the shredded cabbage with the onions, green (and you can keep this mixture in an airtight bowl in the fridge for several days)!
  2. In a container, combine all of the dressing ingredients and shake well. 
  3. When you’re ready to serve, toss the cabbage mixture with the chicken, cashews, wontons, and enough dressing to generously coat. Serve with extra onions, green and seeds of sesame on top!
  • Time to Prepare: 20 minutes
  • Time to cook: 0 minutes
  • Salad is a category of food.
  • Procedure: Chop
  • Asian-inspired cuisine

 

This Napa Chicken Salad with Sesame Dressing Recipe is a classic recipe that uses the flavors of soy sauce, ginger, sesame oil and lime juice. The dressing can be made ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator for up to three days. Reference: california chinese chicken salad recipe.

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