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This salad is so delicious and fresh and exciting! My boyfriend asks for it weekly, and I swear, would eat it every day. Thank you for such a great, easy, healthy recipe!
Donna
It’s June, which means, HELLO! It’s time to go for a swim in this Chopped Thai Chicken Salad.
The flavors in this dreamboat Thai chicken salad are going to rock your face off.
Lime, peanuts, cilantro, carrots, green onions, vinegar, green papaya or mango, soy sauce, chili pepper, garlic, all packed together in a highly textured salad bowl? Oiyyyy! I love it all.
Our gang:
- Chopped cabbage
- Grated carrots
- A bitey green papaya, or green mango, or maybe you can’t find either – not a big deal
- Shredded chicken
- Chopped peanuts
- Lime squeezers
- Cilantro and green onion
- Cute little red serrano peppers
- And the very best peanut dressing your lips have ever touched.
Thai Chicken Salad Meets Green Papaya
I first made this recipe when we were living in the Philippines, so I used a green papaya because I HAD ACCESS TO THESE THINGS. (Green papaya salad is a zippy little number that is a staple of Thai cuisine, and we had lots of similar salads in the Philippines as well.) The semi-spicy, puckery punch is equal parts shocking and mesmerizing.
If you don’t live in the tropics, here’s what I want you to do:
Make a 60-second effort to locate a green papaya or green (under-ripe) mango, which is a great substitution. Peel it and grate it, but don’t taste it yet because it’s so sour and you’re going to be ruffled. Just add it into the salad with all the other parts, and the whole thing will sing.
(If you’re coming up empty-handed, you could go with a ripe mango which will be sweet and delicious, or another crunchy vegetable that you like. Raw cucumber, raw zucchini, bell pepper, or more cabbage or carrots.)
Whichever choose-your-own-adventure path you take, I really don’t think you’re going to be sad about this punchy, crunchy, super-fresh salad.
I love this salad all on its own, but if you’re looking to serve this alongside a whole meal for dinner, you could make this a side for this Thai chicken! Yum.
Okay BRB gotta go take a salad dip.
Watch How To Make This Salad
Chopped Thai-Inspired Chicken Salad
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 4–6 (4 for me! I love a big huge salad) 1x
Description
This simple chopped Thai-Inspired chicken salad has BIG flavors – peanut, lime, soy, chili, cilantro. Topped with a homemade peanut dressing! Healthy and fresh.
Ingredients
Thai Chicken Salad
- 3–4 cups cooked shredded chicken
- 1 head of green cabbage (3–4 cups shredded)
- 1–2 large carrots (2 cups grated)
- 1 green papaya or mango (1–2 cups grated) (optional)
- 1 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
- 1/2 cup peanuts, chopped
- 1/2 cup green onions, sliced
- 3–4 red serrano peppers, sliced
- salt and lime juice to taste
Peanut Dressing
- 1/2 cup peanut butter
- 1/3 cup low sodium soy sauce
- 1/3 cup sesame oil (toasted or dark)
- 1/4 cup rice vinegar
- 2 tablespoons sambal oelek (sriracha works, too)
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- a small knob of fresh ginger, peeled
- a clove of fresh garlic, peeled
- 1/4 cup water to thin to desired consistency
Instructions
- Chop: Put on some good music, pour a drink, and start choppin’!
- Dressing: Pulse all ingredients in the food processor or blender. Adjust consistency with water.
- Thai Chicken Salad Assembly: Toss the salad ingredients in a big bowl with a drizzle of peanut dressing so everything gets coated. Season with salt and lime juice, and maybe a shot of fish sauce if you’re feeling wild. Serve chilled.
Notes
Chicken: Pulled rotisserie chicken works great. You can also cook chicken breasts in the Instant Pot (12 minutes, with about a cup of water, plus salt and pepper) and then shred them.
Cabbage: You want the cabbage to be very thin, like it would be for coleslaw. I did this with a mandoline.
Vegetarian: You can make this with tofu instead of chicken! Just follow one of the methods in this post.
Leftovers / Make Ahead: You can keep this for a few hours once it’s tossed with dressing – like if you make it for lunch, it’ll be pretty okay for dinner. But for best results, keep the leftover salad and dressing separate until ready to serve.
- Prep Time: 45 mins
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Category: Salad
- Method: Chop
- Cuisine: Thai-Inspired
Keywords: chopped thai chicken salad, thai chicken salad, thai salad
One More Thing!
This recipe is part of our collection of favorite peanut butter recipes. Check it out!
Can you use purple cabbage if you don’t have green?
yes!
I’ve followed you for a long long time now and your recipes are always so good. There are a gazillion Chinese Chicken Salad recipes out there – and I’ve made many of them LOL – but this one is just the very best. I think it is the grated green mango (which I almost skipped – don’t!) and the sambal olek in the sauce that just makes it that big leap better. A perfect meal for these sticky August days!! Thank you!
If you can’t find green papaya, would a grated sharp green apple give the same sourness??
Lindsay,
just had this salad tonight for supper and it was a big hit. so easy to put together. the one thing that I forgot was the cilantro and my daughter said that would have added another good flavor. will have to remember it for next time. thank you for this delicious salad.
I love your recipes! This particular one had a TON of comments but no one had actually made it or tasted it yet. So i ventured to make it anyhow!. It is a quick and easy meal to put together. Not sure why people felt like there was a lot of chopping and grating. (Buy the pre chopped coleslaw bag :).
I liked the salad but thought the sauce was a little ‘too’ saucy (and I’m a lover of sauces and robust flavor). I guess i could have held back on the sauce – my bad. The flavor is very robust – almost a little too intense. So I added a little more water than was called for. Also, i preferred it a little sweeter so i added 3 extra TBSP’s of maple syrup in addition to the sugar. I had left overs and put it back in the fridge and went back for 2nd’s 2 hours later. WOW – eating it COLD was a gamechanger. (Not that mine was warm in any way). But somehow it mellowed out the sauce and it wasn’t quite as soupy. Very nice but probably not my first choice.
This was so good and came together really quick. Because of some allergies I just used a bag of coleslaw with carrots, red pepper, green onions, peanuts and some left over cooked chicken thighs. The dressing was easy and so yummy. Didn’t even add the mango.
Thank you for having the option of 1/2 of the recipe. Since I am only cooking for two, I often cut my recipes in half. This is quite handy.
Lindsey, I LOVE your recipes, and use your posts for ideas all the time. But I have one request: is it possible to decrease the number of times the sign up screen pops up? I already get your newsletter, and I have to close the pop up at least 10 times before I can even read the entire recipe! It’s super frustrating! Other than that, I have nothing but praise!
This one actually earned me double high fives from the fam! Easy to customize and that dressing omg
I keep everything separate and leftovers were just as perfect as the first round. Plus I have enough for an envy-inducing lunch at work tomorrow. 12/10 stars, will make and scarf again
This is excellent. Used almond butter and almonds because of peanut allergy. But very definitely a keeper. Love it!
This is on repeat in our house! I’ve been adding a red bell pepper instead of the papaya or mango. I’ve done it with both peanuts and sliced almonds, liked both. I make a batch of crumbled tofu on the side and use some of the pb dressing and coconut aminos to finish and crisp the tofu, so good. We store everything separate, giant bowl of mixed salad, container of tofu, and pb dressing (unrefrigerated) and then mix it all together when we’re ready to eat or packing lunch, finished with a squeeze of lime. SO GOOD! Filling and satisfying. I’ve eaten it almost every day for about 2 weeks and still love it. Our only variation is we just do half the sugar in the dressing.
We love this salad! It is so flavorful and we add shredded or grilled chicken to it! So good!
Love, love, love your recipes, thank you!
I found this recipe in 2012 when I had to eliminate dairy & refined sugar from my diet. It quickly became a favorite and became a weekly meal prep favorite for me. Fast forward 14 years! (🤯) & it’s still a regular meal in our rotation. Even my husband who is “not a salad guy”, loves this! He’ll ask for the papaya salad!
How much is in one servicing for calorie counting purposes? 🙂
Trying to reduce sugar. Do you think a monkfruit sweetener would work ok instead of the sugar, or would you recommend a different type of sugar free sweetener?
Absolutely delish! Love all the flavors and textures of the recipe. Light, but filling. Will definitely make again!
I have been making this recipe for almost 12 years and it remains a favorite! Delicious!
Great recipes! Thank you 😊
Hi,
About what size piece of ginger is a small knob? Thanks!
Ok this was sooo good! I used rotisserie chicken, mango and used less peppers and less sriracha to make it kid friendlier. I added cucumber and uncooked ramen noodles for crunch.
I love this salad and have been making it for over a decade! But question… wasn’t your original peanut dressing different from this one? Can you remind me what the old one was? I miss it 😂
Hi! We also have this peanut dressing, maybe that’s the one you’re referring to?
YUMMM! Have now made this salad 3 or 4 times, and I LOVE it! A lot of shredding/chopping, but also super easy, in that you can make and pull a bunch of the chicken and freeze the extra, and then just thin slice your veggies when you’re ready and add the chicken. The cabbage and carrots keep for a while in the fridge. Keeping all the salad parts separate from the dressing means you can store leftovers in your fridge and enjoy over several days/meals. Don’t skimp on the peanuts and dressing—ah, the dressing!— it’s Soo good! I don’t use the papaya but I bet that would be delicious. I’ve also decided I like to decrease the rice vinegar a bit and replace with some lime juice. Honestly, this is one of my fave recipes ever!
Second time making this salad this month and it is SO GOOD. It’s great to meal prep for lunches. Definitely add the dressing as you serve and it will last in the fridge for days. xo
Yay, so glad to hear you’ve been enjoying this recipe!
My whole family adored this chopped salad! I was looking for a flavorful way to use rotisserie chicken and this was a smashing hit! We aren’t huge fans of sesame oil so I added a lot more rice vinegar to taste and it was perfection.