This Oriental Chicken Salad recipe was adapted from a recipe given to me from a girlfriend. Isn’t that the way it is with recipes? You get them from Mom or grandma or a friend! This salad is good on a hot summer night! Light and refreshing!
- Gather your ingredients.
- Chop the poached chicken breasts into chunks.
- Chopped chicken breasts.
- Make the teriyaki marinade and simmer for 15 minutes.
- Add chopped chicken breasts to marinade, turn off heat and let steep for 15 minutes.
- Drain chicken from marinade and set aside to cool.
- Wash cabbage and drain to dry.
- Cut cabbage in halves and then cut into quarters
- Remove out leaves of quartered cabbage and discard.
- Slice core of cabbage out of each quarter.
- Turn quarters over to stabilize on chopping board and finely chop cabbage quarters in shreds.
- Place shredded cabbage into large serving bowl.
Chop the pineapple in half and add to salad.
- Add butter to small frying pan.
- Melt butter.
- Measure sliced almonds.
- Add almonds to frying pan and stir to coat with butter.
- Sauté almonds in butter over medium-low heat stirring frequently until lightly browned. Watch carefully and do not burn!
- Add almonds to cabbage and pineapple.
Place ramen noodles in a Ziploc bag and seal. Crush ramen noodles with hands until broken into small pieces. 
Gather ingredients for dressing and add to shaker bottle or to a small bowl. Shake dressing ingredients well to combine or whisk in small bowl until combined. 
- Add chicken to cabbage mixture.
- Add ramen noodles to cabbage, pineapple, almonds, chicken mixture.
- Pour dressing over cabbage mixture.
- Toss until ingredients are well-combined.
- Plate and serve immediately.
Here’s the recipe:
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Here’s the recipe:Most Excellent Lite Oriental Chicken Salad
This is a light and refreshing salad. Perfect for dinner on a hot, summer day OR as a side dish (just leave out the chicken). Great addition to a potluck – easy to transport and mix on-site!
- Prep Time: 30 mins
- Cook Time: 30 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 6 to 8 1x
- Category: Salad
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, poached (see Poached Chicken Breast Tenders)
- ½ cup soy sauce
- 1½ teaspoon granulated garlic, divided
- 1½ teaspoon ground ginger, divided
- 1 teaspoon ground mustard
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup plus 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
- 1 – 20 ounce can of pineapple chunks, drained with juice reserved
- 1 small head of cabbage
- 1 package of chicken-flavored Top Ramen noodles
- 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
- ½ cup canola oil
- ½ cup water
- 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 cup sliced almonds
Instructions
- Poach chicken breasts (see Poached Chicken Breast Tenders).
- Make the marinade: in small saucepan, add soy sauce, 1 teaspoon granulated garlic, 1 teaspoon ground ginger, all the ground mustard, brown sugar, all the reserved pineapple juice plus 1 tablespoon of rice wine vinegar.
- Simmer fifteen minutes.
- Cut poach chicken breasts into chunks and add to the soy sauce (now teriyaki sauce) mixture, stir to coat, shut off stove heat and let chicken teriyaki mixture steep for 15 minutes.
- Chop cabbage and place in large mixing bowl.
- Cut the pineapple chunks in half and add to cabbage.
- Make the salad dressing: in a shaker or small bowl, add canola oil, water, ½ cup rice vinegar, granulated sugar, ½ teaspoon granulated garlic, ½ teaspoon ground ginger, sesame seeds and packet from the ramen noodle mix.
- Shake well or whisk to combine.
- Saute’ almonds in butter over medium heat, being careful not to burn; add to cabbage.
- Drain chicken and add chicken to cabbage mixture.
- Crush ramen noodles and add to cabbage mixture.
- Shake dressing again and add to cabbage mixture and toss thoroughly to coat.
- Serve immediately.
Notes
This salad does not keep well. And, this recipe makes 6 very hearty servings. So, for a smaller family, cut this recipe in half. If you have leftovers, the cabbage and ramen noodles will get soggy and the salad will not taste as good as when freshly made. If you like a oilier dressing, skip the water and increase the canola oil to 1 cup. I cut this in half many years ago when experimenting with this salad and found we don’t miss the added oil. If you want to cut the calories even further, skip the butter and just toast the almonds in a dry pan. Do not leave unattended or almonds will burn. This makes a great potluck dish. Just pack everything separately in baggies and take a large bowl to toss it all together at the potluck site. It makes about 20 potluck servings (because people take so little at potlucks since they want a bite of everything!). Make it your own: (1) Add raw Julienne carrots to the salad for added nutrition and color. (2) Don’t like pineapple? Leave it out. Add oranges instead. (3) Like onions? Add sliced green onions cut on the diagonal for a bit of spice and more color. (4) Make it vegetarian: leave out the chicken and the ramen packet mix (has chicken AND MSG in it). You won’t miss either! But, be sure to add the ramen noodles for crunch. (5) Add both pineapple and oranges for an extra colorful meal. (6) Make it quick: buy store-bought teriyaki sauce or even store-bought teriyaki chicken. Buy pre-shredded cabbage. And, buy an oriental salad dressing. You will have dinner ready “In a Jif”! (7) Serve grilled teriyaki chicken breasts. Marinate defrosted chicken breasts in teriyaki marinade in the refrigerator in a plastic bag for 30 minutes. Grill in an indoor grill pan or on your outdoor barbecue grill. Serve whole with the vegetarian salad on the side OR chop and add to salad for a meal-in-one.
Tootles,
Related Posts:
(other salad and salad dressing recipes)
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- BBQ Chicken Salad
- Classic Egg Salad
- Creamy Pesto Dressing
- Creamy Petite Pea Salad with Bacon and Cashews in Tomato Cups
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- Easy Peasy Caprese Salad
- Ensalada de Nopales
- Fresh Mozzarella and Arugula Salad with Avocado
- Grilled Balsamic Chicken Salad
- Grilled Black Fig and Burrata Salad
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- Mexican Caesar Salad
- Mexican Caesar Salad Dressing
- Mexican Corn Salad
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- Steak and Egg Salad
- Summer Berry Chicken Salad
- Taco Salad
- Traditional Chicken Salad with Currants and Walnuts
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- Turkey and Avocado Salad with Craisins
Hey, you should list this under “what’s for dinner?” also. I love salads for dinner, especially if they have meat (chicken) in them…just my opinion.
Yes, sometimes it’s hard to pick just one category!
I’ve made the same salad also, but the recipe I got from a friend has sesame seeds too. In that recipe, you spray a cookie sheet with Pam and fill 1/2 with almonds and the other 1/2 with the sesame seeds, then place under the broiler while they brown a bit. You have to watch them closely so they don’t burn. Love this salad.
What a great “make it your own” idea! Thanks for sharing!