Thai Chicken Salad with Peanut Dressing
This Thai peanut salad is easy, ready in 20 minutes, healthy, and packed with so many different flavors and textures. Just looking at it makes me smile because it feels like I’m eating the rainbow. And I love peanut sauce. Always have, always will. Peanut sauce makes everything taste amazing including this Thai peanut chicken salad that’s loaded with veggies and topped with the heavenly sauce. It’s is so easy to make at home, takes two minutes to whisk together, is far more cost-effective than small store-bought jars, and you control the ingredients. I adapted the peanut sauce portion of today’s recipe from my Peanut Chicken with Peanut Noodles. The salad has crispy sugar snap peas, bell peppers, crunchy carrots, and salty peanuts on top of hearty greens and red cabbage with tender, sesame-scented chicken. Cilantro and green onions add another layer of flavor that complements the peanut sauce which is flavored with sesame oil for authenticity, honey, apple cider vinegar, and ginger. I broke the recipe for Thai chicken salad with peanut dressing into three parts: peanut sauce, chicken, and salad ingredients.
Thai Peanut Salad Ingredients
For the salad itself, you’ll need the following ingredients:
Olive oil Sesame oil Chicken breasts Romaine lettuce or kale Sugar snap peas Red bell pepper Red cabbage Carrots Peanuts Green onion Fresh cilantro
And to make the creamy Thai peanut salad dressing, you’ll need:
Creamy peanut butter Honey Sesame oil Apple cider vinegar Ground ginger Salt and pepper Garlic Cayenne pepper (optional)
How to Make Thai Peanut Salad
The great thing about this Thai peanut dressing salad is that you can prep the individual components ahead of time and toss everything together throughout the week, or assemble the whole dish to enjoy immediately. Here’s how the Thai peanut chicken salad is made:
Thai Chicken Salad Recipe Variations
This is a simple but flavorful salad recipe that you can tweak as you see fit. Here are some options:
Veggies: Add extra veggies or substitute any you don’t like or don’t have. The Thai peanut salad dressing pairs well with pretty much any vegetable! Chicken: Substitute boneless chicken thighs or replace with tofu. If using tofu, I recommend grilling it or cooking it in the mixture of olive and sesame oils until crispy on the outside. Peanut dressing: Replace a teaspoon or two of the sesame oil with toasted sesame oil (careful, it’s potent!), use fresh ginger instead of ground, and likewise you can also substitute the fresh garlic with ground.
Can This Recipe Be Prepared in Advance?
Yes! The peanut salad dressing lasts for at least two weeks in the fridge, the chicken can be cooked up to four days in advance, and the veggies can be chopped and stored in separate containers for about a week. Store everything separately in the fridge, then assemble when you’re ready to eat! The salad is great cold or hot.
Tips for the Best Thai Peanut Salad
Feel free to mix and match the veggies in this Thai chicken salad to use up what you have on hand, but I wouldn’t alter the peanut sauce recipe because it’s perfect as-is. You likely won’t need all of it for the salad and extra will keep for a week in the fridge. The chicken is straightforward easy-peasy, and if you don’t have every single ingredient for the salad, don’t sweat it. Omit or improvise with what you do have.
More Thai-Inspired Recipes:
FAVORITE EASY CHICKEN RECIPES HERE Tried this recipe? Leave a review! Consider leaving a 5 star rating if you’ve made and loved one of my recipes! Peanut Chicken with Peanut Noodles – Easy, ready in 20 minutes, tastes better, and way healthier than takeout!! Peanut sauce automatically makes everything taste AMAZING!!
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Peanut Noodles with Mixed Vegetables and Peanut Sauce – Fast, easy, fresh, healthy, and ready in 5 minutes!
Slow Cooker Thai Peanut Chicken — The easiest peanut chicken ever and your slow cooker does all the work!! Topped with crunchy peanuts, cilantro, green onions, and the peanut sauce is irresistible!!
Thai Coconut Chicken Stir Fry — Chicken, sugar snap peas, bell peppers, and carrots simmered in a rich coconut milk broth that’s irresistible! Layers of flavor, easy, ready in 20 minutes and healthy!
Easy Chicken Satay With Peanut Sauce — Look no further from this FAST and EASY recipe for authentic-tasting Thai chicken satay.
