This Thai chicken salad with peanut dressing is an easy main dish salad that you can make in advance. It is wonderfully flavorful! Serve it in bowls or stuff it inside lettuce wraps for a satisfying Thai-inspired meal!
Much like Thai chicken curry, the flavors and textures of this salad are amazing. Cabbage, scallions, and cilantro combine with shredded chicken to create a delicious base further enhanced by the flavorful dressing. This salad is incredibly good and has quickly become one of my family's favorite main dish salads. I especially like to make it the day before I anticipate being too busy to cook. Needless to say, it's the perfect meal-prep dish.
Ingredients
You'll need ten ingredients to make this salad. The exact measurements are included in the recipe card below. Here's an overview of what you'll need:
- For the dressing: Creamy peanut butter plus water to thin it out, soy sauce, rice vinegar, Thai red curry paste, garlic, and ginger.
- Chicken: I typically use shredded baked chicken breasts or poached chicken. For ultimate ease, you can use shredded rotisserie chicken, leaving the skin out.
- Coleslaw mix: Rather than shred vegetables (green cabbage, red cabbage, and carrots) by myself, I find it easier to use a bagged coleslaw mix.
- Green onions: I use the green parts only and slice them thinly.
- Cilantro: It adds so much flavor to this salad! In some recipes, you can substitute it with parsley, but in this one, I don't recommend it.
Variations
I LOVE this salad and adore the peanut dressing, so I rarely make any changes to it. But if you'd like to try, a few possible variations that I tried and liked include:
- Use boiled and cooled shrimp instead of chicken.
- Replace the green onions with chives or diced shallots.
- Use tahini paste (sesame seed paste) instead of peanut butter, and add a tablespoon of sesame oil to the dressing.
Instructions
Scroll down to the recipe card for detailed instructions. Here are the basic steps for making this salad:
You start by mixing up the dressing. I mix it right in the salad bowl. First, mix the peanut butter with water, soy sauce, and vinegar. It takes a few minutes to reach a smooth consistency, so keep whisking! Then you add the curry paste, garlic, and ginger, and whisk them in.
Now, add your salad ingredients - shredded chicken, coleslaw, scallions, and cilantro - to the same salad bowl, mixing after each addition.
Mix everything well, until all the ingredients are well coated in the dressing. Serve immediately, or refrigerate until ready to serve and for up to four days from the day the chicken was cooked.
Expert Tip
While you can serve the salad immediately, I recommend covering it and refrigerating it for an hour or so to allow the flavors to meld. Mix it one more time before serving.
Recipe FAQs
It's a main-dish salad that typically contains shredded chicken, shredded cabbage, and a Thai-style dressing which I like to make with soy sauce, peanut butter, and red curry paste.
I use a no-stir peanut butter spread in the dressing. It contains palm oil, sugar, and salt in addition to peanuts. Some would object to those added ingredients, but I don't.
It's fine to use natural peanut butter - the kind that contains just ground peanuts and that you need to stir. Depending on its thickness, you might need less or perhaps more water to achieve a salad dressing consistency. You might also want to add a touch of sweetener, such as a teaspoon of honey (real or sugar-free).
No. This is an Americanized version. If peanuts are used in Thai cooking, they're used in the form of ground peanuts. Peanut butter is an American food product, but it does work well to make an effortless, smooth, and tasty peanut dressing.
Serving Suggestions
This is a main-dish salad, and it's a full meal that includes meat and veggies, so you can simply serve it as is on a plate or in a bowl, as shown in the photo below:
You can also serve it in a lettuce wrap or on top of shredded lettuce or baby spinach leaves. If you eat bread, you can stuff it inside tortillas, creating a delicious and filling wrap.
Storing Leftovers
That's the beauty of this salad - it gets better when stored so it's a good idea to make it ahead of time. It keeps well in the fridge, in an airtight container, for 3-4 days.
Just remember that if you used leftover chicken to make it, you should count the four days from the day the chicken was cooked.
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Recipe Card
Thai Chicken Salad with Peanut Dressing
Video
Ingredients
Dressing:
- ¼ cup creamy peanut butter - I use a no-stir peanut butter spread
- ¼ cup water
- 2 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce - or a gluten-free alternative
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 2 tablespoons Thai red curry paste
- 1 tablespoon fresh garlic - minced
- 1 tablespoon fresh ginger root - minced
Salad:
- 1 pound cooked boneless skinless chicken breasts - shredded, from about 20 ounces of raw chicken
- 2 cups coleslaw mix - 5 ounces
- ¼ cup green onions - thinly sliced
- ½ cup cilantro - chopped
Instructions
Make the dressing:
- In a large salad bowl, whisk the peanut butter, water, soy sauce, and rice vinegar. Whisk for a few minutes until smooth, stopping to scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula once or twice.
- Whisk in the red curry paste, garlic, and ginger. Check the mixture's consistency and add a bit more water if needed (start with a tablespoon). Your goal is to achieve dressing consistency. Not too thick, not too runny.
Make the salad:
- To the same bowl, add the shredded chicken, coleslaw mix, green onions, and chopped cilantro. Mix after each addition.
- Mix the salad for a few more minutes, slowly and thoroughly, until all the salad components are well-coated in the dressing and there's no excess dressing pooling on the bottom.
- Serve immediately, or cover and refrigerate for one hour to allow the flavors to meld. Mix one more time, then serve.
Notes
- If you need to cook the chicken breasts, place them in a rimmed baking dish, lightly spray them with oil, season with a pinch of salt and pepper, and bake them in a 450°F oven until cooked through, 20-25 minutes. Transfer to a plate and let them rest until cool enough to handle, then shred them. Here's a detailed recipe for baked chicken breasts.
- While you can serve the salad immediately, I recommend covering it and refrigerating it for an hour or so to allow the flavors to meld. Mix it one more time before serving.
- I use a no-stir peanut butter spread in the dressing. It contains palm oil, sugar, and salt in addition to peanuts. Some would object to those added ingredients, but I don't. It's fine to use natural peanut butter - the kind that contains just ground peanuts and that you need to stir. Depending on its thickness, you might need less or perhaps more water to achieve a salad dressing consistency. You might also want to add a touch of sweetener, such as a teaspoon of honey (real or sugar-free).
- This salad keeps well in the fridge, in an airtight container, for 3-4 days. Just remember that if you used leftover chicken to make it, you should count the four days from the day the chicken was cooked.
Nutrition per Serving
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Loretta Zanier says
Will it be okay with boneless chicken Thighs also!
Vered DeLeeuw says
Hi Loretta,
Yes! Absolutely.
Sophie says
I made it this evening and it tasted wonderful!
So good, I have leftovers for the next day!
I ate it in a pistolet bun! So good!
Vered DeLeeuw says
Hi Sophie,
I'm so glad you enjoyed this recipe! I love that it makes leftovers, and the leftovers are really good.
I had to Google pistolet bun - wow, it sounds amazing!