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Skinless chicken breasts and thighs are roasted in an oriental dressing with crunchy peanuts and sesame seeds to create this low-cal, 6-point chopped oriental chicken salad.
I love chopped salads. In fact, I don’t even understand why non-chopped salads exist. Sure large slices of tomatoes and red onions are pretty for presentation, but it’s awkward to eat an onion slice.
With chopped salads, everything is bite-sized and combined, so that with every bite you get a hint of onion and tomato and cheese…or whatever mix-ins you choose.
I’ve been tempted to ask chefs to chop up salads, but I’m not in Kindergarten any more, so I guess I’m grown up enough to chop my own salad. Inevitably though when I do, a cherry tomato slides off my plate across the table.
Ugh! Just too much work. That’s the kind of stuff that should happen behind the scenes in the kitchen.
That’s why I love bagged shredded cabbage and carrots. Someone else has done the work. All I have to do is chop the other mix-ins and eat without starting a match of tomato ping-pong.
This salad includes a bag of cabbage and half a bag of carrots, plus some roasted chicken and peanuts and homemade oriental dressing. If you’re counting Weight Watchers Points, the entire recipe (which serves 3-4) is 22 points.
Zestuous Chicken Tip
Boneless, skinless chicken breasts have been in the meat case for decades, but now it’s also easy to find boneless, skinless thighs. I like dark meat, so I often buy both the breasts and thighs. I chop up 1 breast and 2 thighs and freeze them in baggies. The combination adds more flavor to chicken recipes.
Chopped Oriental Chicken Salad
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tsp. sesame oil
- I boneless, skinless chicken breast chopped
- 2 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, chopped
- 1/3 cup peanuts
- 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
- 2 Fresno peppers, diced (optional)
- 6 cups shredded cabbage
- 2 cups shredded carrots
- 2 scallions, sliced
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F degrees.
- Make the dressing by mixing the rice wine vinegar, honey, soy sauce and sesame oil together in a bowl.
- In a separate bowl, mix together the chicken, peanuts, sesame seeds, optional pepper and half of the dressing. Spread out on a sheet pan and bake in a 400-degree oven for 15 minutes.
- Remove from oven and let cool.
- In a large salad bowl, combine the cabbage, carrots and scallions. Add the cooked chicken and remaining salad dressing. Toss to coat and serve.
- If you like added heat, top with sriracha sauce.
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Oh, yum! I think I just found the salad I need to put on my menu for next week. 🙂
Thanks Sashi! I hope you love it.
We did love it! I made it for dinner Wednesday night and will be posting about it next Wednesday (4/9). 🙂