Thai Chicken Chopped Salad – Healthy chopped salad with veggies, seasoned chicken, a sweet and tangy dressing and spicy peanut sauce!
Can a get a woot woot for no good, totally terrible, awful horrible very bad days?? Cause yesterday was one of those days. I feel like Alexander. You’ve read that book haven’t you? That poor kid had the worst day. And yesterday felt a whole lot of sympathy for him.
It started with a photographer’s worst nightmare. He really didn’t mean to, I know it was an accident but, my husband broke my camera lens. Yeah, bad news. What’s worse is that I didn’t know that it was broken until I had a stack of warm pancakes covered in ooey gooey cream cheese icing ready to be photographed. A quick realization. A moment of panic. A mad rush down town (I may or may not have broken the speed limit). A really embarrassing episode of begging the customer service lady to replace my warranty-covered lens today. Another mad dash back home. And a bit of speed-photographing to top off the morning.
Turns out I forgot to add one of the visible ingredients to one of my recipes I photographed. The day just kept getting better from there. (And by better, you know I mean worse.)
It’s okay though, that day is (finally!) over, and it’s now a new day. A chance to start fresh without a major life-headache. Let’s cross our fingers today is a teensy bit less stressful, I could use a break. A break to share with you this really amazing Thai Chicken Chopped Salad we had this week. Woah baby! How can something so simple, so healthy, taste so good?! I don’t know, I really don’t. But this is everything you want in a really amazing dinner salad. Hearty flavorful chicken breast. Light and fresh chopped veggies. Crunchy romaine. All tossed together in a sweet and spicy dressing and topped with my favorite peanut sauce. Don’t be deterred by the ingredient list, you use a bunch of them twice and I promise this salad comes together in 30 minutes or less. Perfect for a quick and easy delicious weeknight dinner that won’t bust your healthy-eating goals!
What people are saying about this Thai Chicken Chopped Salad
“This was really good! I made it for lunch today and will have leftovers tomorrow too. The peanut sauce was a little thick so I tossed the chicken in it and served it that way. Sooo good!” – Christina
“I made this today for lunch and loved it!! The peanut sauce was too thick so I added a little of the sweet chile dressing to thin it out just a bit. Everyone that ate the salad enjoyed it. I have been asked to pin the recipe.” – Cathy
“I made this salad with leaf lettuce from my garden today and it was amazing! The lettuce provided a subtle freshness to the chicken, dressing and sauce and was reminiscent of a lettuce wrap. My husband is already asking when we can have this for dinner again.” – Liz
Thai Chicken Chopped Salad
Ingredients
- 3-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts - chopped into 1 inch pieces
- 6 cup chopped romaine hearts
- salt and pepper
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper - (or to taste)
- 1 cucumber - peeled and chopped
- ½ cup sliced carrots
- ½ head red cabbage - thinly chopped
- 5 green onions - chopped
- 1 red bell pepper - chopped
- ½ cup peanuts
Dressing
- ¼ cup rice vinegar
- ¼ cup sweet chili sauce
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- salt and pepper - to taste
- ⅛ teaspoon garlic powder
- ⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
Peanut Sauce
- ½ cup creamy peanut butter
- 4 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons hot red chili sauce - (such as sriracha)
Instructions
- Cook chicken in a large pan or skillet over medium heat, stirring throughout until cooked through and browned on all sides. Toss chicken with lettuce and veggies.
- Whisk together all ingredients for the dressing. Pour over salad and toss to coat.
- Whisk together all ingredients for the peanut sauce. Drizzle over salad and top with peanuts.
This was really good! I made it for lunch today and will have leftovers tomorrow too. The peanut sauce was a little thick so I tossed the chicken in it and served it that way. Sooo good!
I made this today for lunch and loved it!! The peanut sauce was too thick so I added a little of the sweet chile dressing to thin it out just a bit. Everyone that ate the salad enjoyed it. I have been asked to pin the recipe.
That’s what’s so great about this recipe – the dressing can easily be adapted to your preference and the flavors all come together in a WOW kind of way – so glad you liked this recipe!! 🙂
I made this salad with leaf lettuce from my garden today and it was amazing! The lettuce provided a subtle freshness to the chicken, dressing and sauce and was reminiscent of a lettuce wrap. My husband is already asking when we can have this for dinner again.
Changes I made: I didn’t add any of the veggies because I was using what I already had in the house and garden. I used water to deglaze the pan I cooked the chicken in and used the resulting liquid to thin the peanut sauce. The lettuce provided a subtle freshness to the chicken, dressing, and sauce and was reminiscent of a lettuce wrap.
My husband is already asking when we can have this for dinner again.