Chinese Chicken Salad

When I was in high school my best friend’s mom made this for us when we had a long trip on a coach bus for a basketball game. She made us a big container of it and we scarfed it down! I remember asking her the ingredients soon after and have been making it ever since! Hard to believe that was 12 years ago. I love chinese chicken salad and it’s so nice to have the option to make it at home, and not only get it at restaurants when you’re out. The key to this is the homemade dressing. Most asian dressings in stores are a toasted sesame or some thicker soy based dressing. This dressing is light and sweet with a hint of salty. Whenever we make this for friends or a dinner get together it gets eaten super quickly. Just try it this week—you will LOVE it!

Ingredients (salad):

• 1/2 head green cabbage, sliced super thin almost into shreds
• 1/2 head romaine lettuce, chopped
• 1/2 bag spinach
• 1 can mandarin oranges (reserve juice for dressing)
• breast meat from 1 rotisserie chicken or 3 chicken breasts cooked in the crock pot with a homemade rotisserie seasoning (see below for chicken instructions)
• 1 2oz bag sliced almonds
• 2 packets ramen noodles, crushed (just the noodles, reserve one chicken flavor packet for dressing)
• 2 large carrots, grated

Ingredients (dressing):

• 1/2 c. olive oil
• 1/2 c. rice vinegar
• 1/2 c. white sugar
• 1/2 c. mandarin orange juice (from can)
• 1 chicken flavor packet (from ramen noodles)

Ingredients (crock pot “rotisserie” chicken):

• 3 chicken breasts
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. paprika
• 1 tsp. chili powder
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 2 tsp. black pepper
• 1 tsp. italian seasoning
• water

If you have a rotisserie chicken, remove the breast meat, shred with 2 forks and place in a bowl in the fridge for 45 minutes or freezer for 20 minutes to cool. If you don’t have a rotisserie chicken, you’ll need to make the chicken beforehand. I like to make it in the crock pot with the above chicken recipe. Place all ingredients in the crock pot and add enough water so it comes up about 1/2 inch on the sides, and so it only covers the chicken breasts about halfway. Cook on low for 4-5 hours or high for 2-3 hours. Once cooked shred and place in fridge or freezer to cool.

Once the chicken is cooling, prepare the salad ingredients. In a bowl combine and mix cabbage, lettuce, and  spinach. Then add almonds, crushed ramen noodles, grated carrots, and mandarin oranges. Add chicken once cooled. 

In a medium bowl, whisk together ingredients for salad dressing. Pour about 3/4 of the dressing onto the salad, toss and see if it needs more. I usually use almost all of the dressing but you don’t want it to get too soggy. Let sit for about 10 minutes before serving to let the dressing marinate the flavors. Be prepared to love this salad! I’ve been loving it for 12 years and still going strong on it ;)