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This Thai chicken salad with peanut dressing is so fresh, bright, and easy to make! It’s a great way to use leftover or rotisserie chicken, and it’s on your table in just 20 minutes.
Love cabbage? Try my Best Coleslaw or Easy Egg Roll in a Bowl next.
Why you’ll love it
If you enjoy Thai food as much as I do, you’ll devour this Thai-inspired chicken salad. The peanut, lime, and ginger dressing is incredible. Pair it with crunchy cabbage, veggies, and fresh herbs, and you have one flavor-packed salad! I like to eat it year-round since it has ingredients available all the time.
Even picky eaters will enjoy it. This simple Thai salad will be a hit with your entire family. I like to consider it a salad for people who don’t really like salad. It’s that good. It’s also packed with so much good stuff that it’s filling enough to eat as a meal on its own.
What you’ll need
For the salad
- Coleslaw – I use a bagged coleslaw mix
- Chicken – use leftover Shredded Cooked Chicken or rotisserie chicken
- Scallions – they’ve got a fairly mild taste, but use red onion if you prefer
- Red bell pepper – to add crunch and color
- Cilantro and basil – I strongly recommend adding both these fresh herbs. They complement the dressing so well. If you can’t eat cilantro, sub for Italian parsley. Mint works too!
- Peanuts – chopped peanuts top it all off
For the dressing
- Peanut butter – I used a smooth creamy variety. I don’t recommend natural peanut butter for this recipe.
- Soy sauce, lime juice, honey – this trio makes up the wonderful savory-tangy-sweet flavor combination!
- Toasted sesame oil – it has a distinct flavor and is used in many Asian recipes. Don’t confuse it with the regular kind.
- Garlic powder – for another savory layer. Use fresh minced garlic instead if you like.
- Fresh ginger – it adds a punch of bold flavor
- Water – depending on the brand of peanut butter and how thick you like the dressing, you may have to add more than suggested to thin out the dressing
Pro tips and troubleshooting
- We’re using the toasted variety of sesame oil that’s darker in color and can be found in the Asian foods aisle along with soy sauce. Regular sesame oil has a lighter color and is often found with other cooking oils like olive oil, so don’t get that one.
- I use one of my favorite kitchen tools to grate the ginger, my Microplane zester/grater. It’s so much easier to grate when it’s frozen! Just store ginger in a ZipLoc freezer bag so you always have some handy.
- If you store your peanut butter in the fridge, make sure to let it warm up on the counter for a little before making the dressing so it’s not cold and hard and mixes properly. You can also add more water to thin it out to desired consistency.
How to make Thai chicken salad
This is an overview with step-by-step photos. Full ingredients & instructions are in the recipe card below.
Add all the dressing ingredients to a bowl, and whisk until combined. Make sure to test it and adjust as necessary (more lime juice, honey, water, etc.) Prep all the salad ingredients, and place them in a large bowl.
Top the salad with the homemade peanut dressing, season with salt & pepper, and serve immediately.
Substitutions and variations
- If you don’t want to buy pre-bagged coleslaw mix, you can cut up/shred your own cabbage and carrots.
- Cucumber would be a great addition to this salad! I’d cut it up in fairly small cubes. I’ve also seen people add papaya.
- Want to make this a spicy Thai chicken salad? Try adding some crushed red pepper flakes, cut-up fresh Thai chilis, or some sriracha sauce to the dressing. A little heat would be fantastic here.
What to serve with this salad
- This is quite a large salad. It serves four as an main dish on its own no problem, but you could easily feed up to six people depending on how much they eat or if you serve it with something else. Serve with a dinner roll or crusty bread, and you’re good.
- If you want a riff on soup and salad, pair it with this light 15 Minute Thai Green Curry Soup.
Leftovers and storage
- This salad does work for leftovers for a day or so just fine, but it may get a bit less crisp. Just store in an airtight container and refrigerate.
- Keep in mind leftovers aren’t quite as good as when freshly made, so you could certainly halve all the ingredients if you don’t want anything left over.
- Or you could store the dressing in a jar in the fridge for up to a week and use when you’re ready!
More Thai-inspired recipes
Questions? Leave me a comment below! I’d love if you left a star rating and review. As always, tag me #saltandlavender on Instagram so I can see your creations.
Thai Chicken Salad with Peanut Dressing
Ingredients
- 1 pound coleslaw mix
- 3 cups shredded cooked chicken
- 1/4 cup scallions chopped
- 1 red bell pepper chopped
- 1/2 cup chopped peanuts
- Small handful fresh cilantro chopped (optional but recommended)
- Small handful fresh basil sliced thin or torn (optional)
- Salt & pepper to taste
Dressing:
- 5 tablespoons creamy peanut butter see note
- 3 tablespoons water or more as needed
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon lime juice
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1/2 teaspoon pure sesame oil see note
- 1 teaspoon fresh ginger grated
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
Instructions
- Add the dressing ingredients to a medium-sized bowl and whisk together until smooth. Taste and adjust (e.g. add more lime juice or honey). If your dressing comes out really thick (peanut butter brands can vary), add even more water than suggested.
- Prep all the salad ingredients and them add to a large bowl. Toss with the dressing and serve immediately. Season with salt & pepper as needed.
Notes
- I don’t recommend using natural peanut butter for this recipe as the flavors and texture can be a bit off. I would use it sparingly and then taste and adjust the dressing as needed.
- I use the sesame oil found in the Asian section of the grocery store. It’s got quite a strong/nutty flavor. It’s darker in color and sometimes you’ll find it labeled as toasted sesame oil. I just buy whichever brand is in stock.
- You don’t need to add the cilantro or basil, but they definitely add extra flavor and freshness.
- Helpful hint: It’s much easier to grate ginger when it’s frozen. I always keep some fresh ginger in my freezer for when I need it. It also helps reduce waste (I always seem to waste fresh ginger when I don’t use it in time!).
- Serves 4-6. You may want to halve it if you don’t want leftovers.
- Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy only and should be construed as an estimate rather than a guarantee. Ingredients can vary and Salt & Lavender makes no guarantees to the accuracy of this information.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
© Salt & Lavender Inc. Content and photographs are copyrighted. Sharing this blog post is much appreciated, but copying and pasting full recipes without authorization to social media is strictly prohibited.
This recipe was originally published on June 16, 2017. It’s been updated with new photos and better instructions but is the same great recipe!
Last night I copied 12 of your wonderful recipes. Unfortunately, when I took them off the printer 8 of the recipes had your line, Salt and Lavender either through a ingredient line or instructions which made them all irrelevant. I’m very disappointed that I wasted hours selecting the recipes and a lot of paper. Your site is the only place this has ever happened. I won’t be visiting this site again.
Hi! I have never heard of this problem happening before and millions of people visit my site each month. I print recipes from my website all the time. Sorry it happened and that you won’t be visiting my site again, but I think it’s likely an issue with your settings as I cannot replicate it myself.
I have never had this issue either. And a very rude comment when Natasha provides you with such wonderful free recipes.
Recipes are amazing and well worth the search time! Never ever had an issue printing either! You won’t miss this 1 individual at all!
Thank you, Laura! 🙂
What!? This is the epitome of entitlement. This content is free yet you’re acting like you want to speak to the manager and get a refund. Get help!
Write in the missing information from the website…
How long to the leftovers hold up. I want to make this for my lunches next week. Are they good for 4 days?
3-4 days should be fine for cooked chicken. 🙂
This recipe was delicious, I will definitely be making again.
To the person complaining about how the recipe printed, just remember electronics can only do what we tell them to do! This was user error and sounds like instead of selecting “print recipe” where the recipe is, she selected “file” at the top, then selected “print” If you do it from “file” it prints everything, especially if you select “include images.” Hope this helps!
Hours? There are about a dozen things that can go wrong while printing. Maybe you should have tried a different printer, different search engine. Or copy and pasted the text in to word or InDesign….or taken a screen grab. Nope instead you gave all of us some amusement with the non sense complaint, and in my case, a giant eye roll.
Love this!! Made as directed and it is delicious! Such a refreshing salad! I left the dressing separate so I can avoid things getting soggy and eat it for my lunches this week.
Thank you so much!
This was DELICIOUS!
Fantastic!! 🙂
If you LOVE peanut butter, this is the salad for you! Otherwise, I recommend vastly reducing the PB and bumping up the other ingredients. Maybe add a little rice wine vinegar to loosen instead of some of the water. Mine was super thick (I used natural Skippy) and added considerable increases in soy sauce, lime juice and sesame oil. I also added the rice wince vinegar. The rest of the flavors were on point.
Yeah, I don’t think natural PB works as well for this recipe.
Absolutely delicious. I’m going to do this in a wok and try it hot.
Ooh let me know how it goes!
this was fantastic! I doubled the amount of scallions and added some dried chilies and a fresh Jalapeno for some heat.
So happy it was a hit!! Thanks for taking the time to write me a review, Jen!
It was good, but I didn’t fall in love with it. If you love peanuts this recipe would be a great fit for you.
Very good! I had some vegan Whole Foods sweet and sour chicken that I used in place of real chicken, not that I object to meat.
The only reason I gave it 4 instead of 5 stars was that I had to doctor the dressing up a bit. I thought it needed heat, more sour, and more sweet, so I added some sweet chili sauce and tripled the amount of lime juice.
Otherwise, great recipe. The cilantro and basil are truly necessary, though if one is cursed with the cilantro-tastes-like-soap gene, you could definitely get away with just substituting more basil for the cilantro.
I just happened to have fresh Thai basil on hand, but any fresh basil is good.
I turned it into a stir fry dish. It was excellent. Lots of cilantro, basil and peanuts and added a couple cloves of garlic and sriracha sauce. I will be making it again and maybe adding noodles.
I love that idea, Anne!
Perfect light, healthy dinner for my husband who works late. I cook a lunch for him, and he comes home to this for dinner. Yes, the picky meat and potatoe guy, absolutely loves this and eats four nights in a row. I’ve come up with a soy peanut butter marinade to lift the flavor of the chicken. First recipe that is on repeat in our home.
I’m so happy to hear that, Joan!! That’s awesome!! 😀