This protein-packed Asian Chicken Salad is loaded with chicken, Napa cabbage, mandarin oranges, avocado, and crispy wontons tossed in a spicy chili crisp dressing. Perfect for meal prep!
For another satisfying high-protein salad, try this miso shrimp salad loaded with shrimp and crunchy vegetables.
Asian Chicken Salad
Now that the weather’s warming up, I’m ready for big, bold, main dish salads—and this crispy Asian Chicken Salad has been at the top of my list lately. If you’re anything like me, lunch needs to be high-protein, fresh, and easy to prep ahead. Bonus points if it actually makes you excited to eat a salad. Well, this one has it all! Plus, it’s meal prep gold. Make a big batch, and lunch is handled for the week. You may also want to try this Asian Chicken Chopped Salad.
Why You’ll Love This Asian Chicken Salad
I devoured this Asian chicken salad when I first tested this recipe. It’s protein-packed with tender chicken breast, Napa cabbage, mandarin oranges, creamy avocado, slivered almonds, and crispy wonton chips. Everything gets tossed in a simple chili crisp dressing that you might want to double, it’s that good. Here are more reasons to try it:
- High in protein to keep you full and fuel your day
- Crunchy and fresh thanks to the cabbage and toppings
- Flavorful with juicy mandarin oranges and a chili crisp dressing
- Meal-prep Friendly: Just store the dressing, avocado, and toppings separately.
- Dietary Restrictions: Weight Watchers-friendly, gluten-free (if omitting wontons), high-protein, dairy-free; vegetarian and vegan (if omitting chicken)
If you make this Asian chicken salad recipe, I would love to see it. Tag me in your photos or videos on Instagram, TikTok, or Facebook. And be sure to join the Skinnytaste Community to see what everyone’s cooking!
What You’ll Need
Here are the ingredients for this easy Asian chicken salad recipe. See the recipe card below for the exact measurements.
- Wonton Wrappers: Make homemade wonton chips with wonton wrappers and cooking spray.
- Asian Chicken Salad Dressing: For the spicy chili crisp dressing, you’ll need red pepper flakes, sesame seeds, garlic, sesame oil, rice vinegar, honey, and salt.
- Napa Cabbage is a hearty green, making it perfect for meal prep. Compared to lettuce, cabbage doesn’t get as soggy as quickly.
- Chicken Breast: If you have leftover grilled chicken, use it, or you can buy rotisserie chicken if you don’t want to cook.
- Vegetables: Cucumbers, scallions, and avocado
- Oranges: Fresh mandarins or clementines add a burst of juicy sweetness.
- Slivered Almonds for more crunch and protein
How to Make Asian Chicken Salad
The spicy chili crisp vinaigrette elevates this salad, making it absolutely craveable. See the recipe card at the bottom for printable directions.
- Make the Wonton Chips: Place the wonton wrappers on a parchment- lined baking sheet and spray them with cooking spray. Bake at 325°F for 10 to 12 minutes until golden and crisp.
- Make the Chili Crisp Vinaigrette: Combine the red pepper flakes, sesame seeds, and garlic in a small heat-safe bowl. Warm the sesame oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Pour it into the bowl with the chili flake mixture. Once the seeds stop sizzling, add rice vinegar, sweetener, and salt, and let it cool.
- Assemble the Salads: Add the cabbage, chicken, vegetables, and oranges to a large bowl or 4 smaller ones. Top with the almonds and crushed wontons, and drizzle with the vinaigrette.
Variations:
- Greens: I used hearty Napa cabbage because it holds up all week, but if you want to eat this the same day you make it, any lettuce will work.
- Oranges: Any fresh citrus works, like oranges, Cara Cara, or Sumo mandarins.
- Gluten-Free: If you want to make it gluten-free, skip the wontons. It will still be great.
- Time Savers: Buy wonton chips and a bag of coleslaw if you don’t have time to make the chips and chop the cabbage.
- Vegetarian/Vegan: Omit the chicken and add extra vegetables, like bell pepper or carrots, or tofu to make it heartier.
- Nuts: Swap almonds with peanuts or cashews, or make it nut-free and use sunflower seeds.
Storage
The salad will last for 4 days in the refrigerator. Here’s how to meal prep it:
- Store the dressing and wontons in separate containers.
- Mix the remaining ingredients together and store in an airtight container.
- Slice the avocado before eating.
More Chicken Salad Recipes You’ll Love
For more salad ideas using chicken, check out these five delicious chicken salad recipes to inspire your next meal!
- BBQ Chicken Salad
- Houston’s Grilled Chicken Salad
- Rosemary Chicken Salad with Avocado and Bacon
- Mediterranean Chicken Kebab Salad
- Chicken Salad – my classic recipe
Asian Chicken Salad
Ingredients
- ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 2 teaspoons sesame seeds
- 1 teaspoon dried minced garlic
- 1 ½ tablespoons sesame oil
- 3 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 1 teaspoon liquid sweetener, honey, monk fruit, etc
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 4 small wonton wrappers, omit for gluten-free
- 4 cups Napa cabbage, chopped
- 3 ½ cups chicken breast, pulled rotisserie or chopped grilled (16 oz)
- 1 cup chopped cucumber
- ¼ cup chopped scallion, about 2-3 scallions
- 3 small mandarins or clementines, separated into slices
- 5 ounces avocado, sliced
- ¼ cup slivered almonds, toasted
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325F.
- Add wonton wrappers to a parchment lined baking sheet and spray with cooking spray. Bake until golden and crisp, 10-12 minutes. Set aside to cool, then crumble.
- Meanwhile, make homemade chili crisp vinaigrette: In a small heat safe bowl combine red pepper flakes, sesame seeds and garlic. Heat the sesame oil in a small skillet over medium heat until hot and aromatic, 1-2 minutes. Pour into the bowl over the chili flake mixture. Once the seeds stop sizzling, add rice vinegar, sweetener and salt. Set aside to cool.
- While it cools, in a large bowl or 4 individual bowls, carefully add the cabbage, topped by the chicken, then cucumber, scallion, mandarin and avocado. Top with toasted almonds, crushed wontons and drizzle with chili crisp vinaigrette.
Last Step:
Please leave a rating and comment letting us know how you liked this recipe! This helps our business to thrive and continue providing free, high-quality recipes for you.Notes
- Double the Chili Crisp Dressing: You won’t regret it!
- Greens: I used hearty Napa cabbage because it holds up all week, but if you want to eat this the same day you make it, any lettuce will work.
- Oranges: Any fresh citrus works, like oranges, Cara Cara, or Sumo mandarins.
- Gluten-Free: If you want to make it gluten-free, skip the wontons. It will still be great.
- Time Savers: Buy wonton chips and a bag of coleslaw if you don’t have time to make the chips and chop the cabbage.
- Nuts: Swap almonds with peanuts or cashews, or make it nut-free and use sunflower seeds.
The salad ingredients were a nice mix of veggies with the added sweetness of mandarins. We found the dressing to be too garlicky for our tastes. This was the first time I have used dried minced garlic, so perhaps it is just that we aren’t used to its flavor. Thank you for the recipe, and since I’ve had success with other recipes on your website, I’ll be back!
Absolutely delicious. The chili crisp dressing is *chef’s kiss*!
Surprisingly good
I made this as written and it was absolutely divine! I loved the pop of juice from the mandarins, crunch of almonds (I forgot to add the wonton 😢, but it’s a great excuse to make this again soon). The creaminess of the avocado put this over the top for me. Delicious!
I believe every meal needs some crunch and this is the perfect example. So many different textures and sweet, salty, and savory. Addictive. Also very versatile as some have mentioned mango instead of clementines, chickpeas instead of chicken. I think shrimp would work or pork tenderloin. Thanks for a great recipe
This was delicious! I took a few shortcuts because my daughter is a rower and I spend hours waiting on her in the parking lot so I used the Cruciferous Crunch blend from Trader Joes for the cabbage, and I used the dry chow mein noodles in place of the wontons. Grilled the chicken over lunch and sort of shredded it and doubled the dressing. FANTASTIC. We had it for dinner and I had it for lunch today. Thanks for an amazingly versatile and delicious option for dinner.
Fantastic! It taste like stir fry in salad form!
This recipe is so good. I make a batch and eat it for lunch every day. The only substitution I make is to omit the chicken and throw in a can of garbanzo beans.
I like this better with half a diced mango instead of mandarin oranges. If have it, add couple sliced radishes, 1/2 red bell pepper, sunflower seeds and even chopped peanuts. I throw income purple cabbage or spinach if in the fridge. Shrimp would be good if no grilled chicken breast. Wonton chips pain in booty – we ignore. There’s plenty of crunch elsewhere. Def increase the dressing by 50% – just throw together – doesn’t need to be perfect. It’s SO GOOD. Instead of dribbling, mix in what you will eat that day with your hands or tongs like a Ceaser. You’ll be shocked how far the dressing goes. We always make leftovers without dressing and pour on next day. So. Dang. Good.
I like this better with half a diced mango instead of mandarin oranges. If have it, add couple sliced radishes, 1/2 red bell pepper, sunflower seeds and even chopped peanuts. I throw income purple cabbage or spinach if in the fridge. Shrimp would be good if no grilled chicken breast. Wonton chips pain in booty – we ignore. There’s plenty of crunch elsewhere. Def increase the dressing by 50% – just throw together – doesn’t need to be perfect. It’s SO GOOD. Instead of dribbling, mix in what you will eat that day with your hands or tongs like a Ceaser. You’ll be shocked how far the dressing goes. We always make leftovers without dressing and pour on next day. So. Dang. Good.
This recipe was delicious but for the life of me, I couldn’t get it down to the calories a it is listed — it was over 600 with each serving getting 1/4 of an avocado and using cups instead of ounce for the shredded chicken.
You have to add by ounces, avocados range in size. This would be 1 oz per serving.
We’ve made this twice…another family favorite
Will go into favorite’s for salads. I really appreciate the recipe to make your own chili crisp dressing. I have not bought any as I figure would be too spicy–this way I used a milder red pepper and it was great. Had black sesame seeds that looked fun on this too. With more of a lettuce base for husband who doesn’t like raw cabbage–(we have a difference of opinion there!) Cabbage for mine, and addition of some colorful bell peppers and carrots instead of cucumbers and onions— Appreciate this about all your recipes that you give variations and additions—sometimes you want to make something and don’t have quite everything listed and it gives confidence to make substitutions.
Thanks Frances!
This was great! My husband said its the best salad he’s ever had. This will be a summer favorite for sure!
Perfect!
Fantastic recipe! I substituted Tokyo Bejana I received in my CSA box for the Napa cabbage . I highly recommend this recipe.
Amazing. We’re obsessed with this flavor packed salad and I’m not normally a salad person.
Delicious! We loved the dressing . . . so flavorful and versatile. I used packaged wonton crisps and canned mandarins to just make this recipe a tiny bit easier/quicker. I’m going to use the dressing on a lettuce, spinach, and mango salad.
Forgot to add I used slightly crushed pita chips (Stacy’s Naked pita chips with sea salt) to save time and they were perfect!
Made this for a ladies outing on the lake tonight. The flavors were great together and everyone loved it – already shared the recipe! I did double the dressing and used about 3/4 of it, cut the chili flakes in half for the group, and subbed cara cara oranges for the mandarins as that’s what I had. Fantastic!
There wasn’t as much flavor as I was hoping in this much. The Napa Cabbage was bland and just tasted like water.
I was blown away by this recipe! You know when you get one of those delicious “everything” type salads that seem impossible to recreate at home? Well this is IT! One of the best salads I’ve ever had, let alone made. Highly recommend
When you meal prep this, do you add the dressing? Or wait until serving?
Store the dressing, avocado, and toppings separately.
could you use jarred chili crunch for the dressing My husband love it
Sure, why not!
This is fantastic. I did not think these ingredients all went together but it was AMAZING and will be making again. Couldn’t find wonton wrappers so I made tortilla strips and that worked for some crunch. Thanks so much for this wonderful recipe.
Isn’t it so good!!!!
So fresh and delicious! We have some cucumber haters in our house so I used broccoli instead and it was perfect, we all loved it!
Great!
I loved all the salad ingredients, but both my husband and I thought the dressing was a little too salty.
Good to know!
Delicious. Love the freshness & the crunch.
This recipe was astonishingly delicious! We grilled chicken thighs and doubled the sauce. Going into the regular rotation!
Great!!
Just made this for lunch and the flavors were great! Added a few extra veggies we had, but otherwise followed recipe to a tee. Should have doubled the dressing because my husband used more than half of it, he liked it so much!
It’s so good!
I forgot to say that I would also add cilantro to this next time.
I am sure that would be delish!
I made this tonight. It was great. I just microwaved the vinaigrette ingredients minus the vinegar which I added after it was heated up. I used rotisserie chicken and store-bought wontons. I highly recommend adding purple cabbage, sugar snap, peas, shredded carrots, and thinly sliced red bell pepper. It made it beautiful, crunchy, and more loaded withvegetables.
Love the added vegetables!
My family loved this. We are vegetarians, so made it with tofu marinated with Asian flavors.
Perfect!
I am anxious to, this sounds delicious. I am, however, confused about the vinaigrette. What is the “chili flake mixture”? Are you using chili crisp, if so how much, I don’t see it on the ingredient list. Thx
I was wondering the same thing. Is it chili flakes, chili crisp or both. I have both on hand at all times so this is confusing.
The chili flake mixture is the mixture we are making with sesame seeds, garlic and sesame oil.
No. Follow ingredients listed. The chili flake mixture is the mixture we are making with sesame seeds, garlic and sesame oil.
This will be wonderful for meal prep! Would you be able to tell me the calories/nutrition for the dressing alone?
Any suggestions for someone who cannot eat anything that contains fiery stuff like red pepper flakes? Is there something that will make this tasty but not hot? The rest of the recipe sounds delicious!
Just leave the chili flakes out
I intend to use sweet red chili sauce when I make it.