Asian Chicken Cranberry Salad (Video!)
Do you love a good Asian Chicken Salad? Try the flavors of this Asian Chicken Cranberry Salad; delicious potluck, holiday salad or main dish! WATCH THE VIDEO.
Friends, this Asian Chicken Cranberry Salad has been on my blog for years. We love this coleslaw salad recipe because it’s light, fresh, and the first to be devoured at a party! Of course it’s delicious for any holiday–or as simple as a weeknight meal. This recipe if a must for Asian salad lovers.
Asian Chicken Cranberry Salad
This Asian Chicken Cranberry Salad is so good, I think you might be adding this to your monthly rotation, if you are a menu planner! We call this our “anytime salad” because it’s literally good for any season. But if you love a good summer slaw, try this Sweet Asian Slaw with Apple and Corn.
So good, this Asian Chicken Cranberry Salad is packed full of flavor. We love this served with grilled chicken, potato salad or macaroni salad. For a quick weekend barbecue, this is the first salad to be gobbled up by our guests!
It’s super easy to make as well. Oh, and by the way, this recipe was posted here on Reluctant back in January 2015, so it’s been around for awhile.
Think ahead to Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, Father’s Day, and the summer months ahead! The ingredients of this Asian Chicken Cranberry Salad are so versitile, but the real flavor is in the dressing!
Ingredients for Asian Chicken Salad
- Coleslaw mix
- Rotisserie chicken
- Toasted sliced almonds, or cashews
- Dried cranberries, we use Orange Cranberries from Trader Joe’s
- Red onion
- Sesame sticks (found in the bulk aisle at grocery store – optional)
- Chopped cilantro
- Mandarin oranges (optional)
- Black sesame seeds (or regular)
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- Balsamic vinegar (regular or white)
- Low-sodium soy sauce
- Minced garlic
- Honey or brown sugar
- Minced ginger
- Toasted sesame oil (or more to taste)
Asian Salad substitutions and TIPS:
The beauty of this Asian salad recipe is that you can modify it to your liking. A guest has a nut allergy? Drop the almonds.
Don’t have any sesame seeds on hand? You can leave them out. If you dont’ have black, use the regular sesame seeds. Optional to add poppy seeds, too.
Don’t like dried cranberries? Substitute for dried cherries or other dried fruit.
Change up the nuts: We’ve made this salad with slivered almonds, toasted almonds, toasted pecans, and cashews.
Toast almonds by laying on a paper towel and microwaving for 1 minute, turning once. Or, toast the sliced almonds under low broil for 2-3 minutes, until golden brown. You can also make your own cabbage mix with green and purple cabbage with a tiny bit of carrots.
You can use white balsamic or dark. The dark combined with soy will make the salad darker.
Another tip is to buy rotisserie chicken at Costco for this salad. Or, if you have time, boil or grll up a few chicken breasts, chop, and mix into the salad.
Change up the cabbage (use more red cabbage, or Nappa cabbage.)
Remember, chicken is optional.
Make the dressing up and store it in a canning jar.
How to make Asian Chicken Cranberry Salad
- Layer the salad: Add the cabbage in a large bowl with chicken, almonds (or cashews, or both), cranberries, red onion, sesame seeds, sesame sticks (optional), and fresh cilantro.
- Make the dressing: Combine the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, honey, ginger, and sesame oil in a blender. Add water and process until smooth.
- Right before serving: Lightly pour the dressing over the salad mixture, according to how moist you like the salad. Gently toss and serve. (You may have a little dressing left over:)
Make entertaining moments happen
Here’s an easy way to host. Have you ever thought of hosting a salad potluck? You provide the beverages and dessert, and everyone brings a salad. I’ve hosted salad parties for years, and usually make this salad (double the recipe), which gets eaten quickly!
Make entertaining moments happen, work on relationships, and spend time with people who will help you become a better person! I think our world could use more of bringing people together, or “eating together.
An example might be instead of doing casual pizza every Friday night, maybe invite 2 or 3 people over for a sit-down meal. Or making an Epic Charcuterie Board and make this the main dish. Remember you don’t have to do it all; ask guests to bring a dish!
I want to be one of those people who lives a rich life, surrounded by love and people.
Perfect occasions to serve Asian Chicken Cranberry Salad
Recently at a party I offered to help by bringing one of my favorite salads that everyone loves, Asian Chicken Cranberry Salad.
It’s the perfect dish to take to a party, especially if you double the recipe and serve it in a giant bowl (feeds a crowd).
- Baby or bridal shower
- Any holiday gathering
- Potluck or party
- Picnic (have you bought my new travel board?)
- Working lunches
- Salad for dinner (eat your veggies!)
How to serve Asian Slaw Salad
The sweet and tangy dressing with a hint of sesame combined with crisp, thinly chopped cabbage, crunchy, salty sesame sticks, mandarin oranges cranberries, chicken, toasted almonds and plenty of fresh cilantro, makes every bite sensational.
It can be served as a main dish, or a side salad, and I promise, it’s always the first to go. It’s just that good! You can bring the salad to a party in a large bowl, or serve it at home in individual bowls.
Even with the dressing on, if you’re lucky and you have leftovers, it makes for a good leftover wrap the next day.
You can toss right before serving, or even a bit in advance. The cabbage does not get soggy! But even as leftovers, and it’s a little soggy, that is not a bad thing. It’s very tasty leftover.
For more great recipes like this one, I suggest you check these recipes out:
Asian Marinated Cucumber Salad [The Food Charlatan]
Asian Cabbage Salad with Sriracha and Sesame [Kalyn’s Kitchen]
Blue Cornbread Asian Pear Sausage Stuffing
ENJOY!
Get the Recipe:
Asian Chicken Cranberry Salad
Ingredients
- 2 small bags of coleslaw mix, about 12 cups
- 4 cups rotisserie chicken, finely chopped
- 1 ½ cups toasted sliced almonds, or cashews
- 1 ½ cup dried cranberries, I used Orange Cranberries from Trader Joe’s
- ¾ cup red onion, finely diced
- 1 cup sesame sticks, found in the bulk aisle at grocery store – optional
- 1 ½ cups chopped cilantro
- 1-2 small cans mandarin oranges, drained
- ¼ cup black sesame seeds, or regular sesame seeds
- 1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- ½ cup balsamic vinegar, regular or you can use white
- 4 Tbsp. low-sodium soy sauce
- 3-4 cloves garlic, chopped
- 4 Tbsp. honey or brown sugar
- 4 Tbsp. minced ginger
- 2 tsp. toasted sesame oil
Equipment
- Blender (I use my Vitamix for so many recipes)
Instructions
- Layer the cabbage in a large bowl with chicken, almonds (or cashews, or both), cranberries, red onion, sesame seeds, sesame sticks (optional), and fresh cilantro. Add the mandarin oranges (optional).
- Combine the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, honey, ginger, and sesame oil in a blender. Add 3 tablespoons of water. Blend until smooth.
- Lightly pour the dressing over the salad mixture, according to how moist you like the salad. Gently toss and serve. (You may have a little dressing left over.)
Notes
Hello and welcome to my home and table!
I’m Sandy—lover of food, family, cooking, THE BIG BOARD, travel, and bringing people together. Through great recipes and connection around the table, we become better, stronger, and more courageous people. Feasting on Life is real, and every time we do it, we grow a little more. Read more...
Love, love, love this recipe!! It makes a lot which means it works great for leftovers! Many Asian style salads like this call for peanut butter in the dressing and greatly appreciate this being different! Delicious recipe…a must try!!
This salad is amazing. I believe it’s just as good or better than anything at Panera.
I used bottled Ginger Sesame Dressing instead of making it. Skipped the chicken to have salad as a side dish to homemade vegetable soup and crusty bread.
Great idea!
I was wondering following the recipe as is, how many would it serve?
8-10
I made this dish. It came out delicious, although much darker then your picture. I guess the basmati vinegar turned it that color. Any suggestions to keep it a more salad look. Thanks
This looks wonderful! I want to make BUT do you have any suggestion for modifying the dressing? We can’t use soy due to an allergy.
Coconut aminos are a great substitute for soy sauce.
Do you have the nutritional information on this salad? It is January and we’re all counting calories and eating healthy again!
I don’t at this time, Sherry. Happy New Year!
I agree with Melissa. It was pretty good, but there’s something missing that I can’t out my finger on. I added a little extra sesame seed oil also (which I love). I kept the cilantro because I do love that extra zing that it gives. I gave a couple squeezes of fresh lime juice and threw in some Mandarin oranges. I didn’t have any sesame sticks, but threw fried won tons on top.
I might try adding a bit of seasoned rice vinegar next time, that might be what’s missing
Great!
Four thumbs up. Hubby and both teenagers well impressed. I will definitely make it for my folks when we visit them later this month. Just delicious.
I really wanted to give this 5 stars but, both my husband and I felt as if something was missing in the dressing. I halved the recipe and followed it with the following exceptions:
I had Napa cabbage in refrig so I finally chopped that. I had a roasted chicken from the day before so I used that. I could not find sesame sticks but substituted a ramen noodle/sesame seed/almond mix that I had left over for the crunch. We are not lovers of the strong flavor of cilantro so that was eliminated. Neither of us are lovers of hot and spice, so I cut the ginger in half.
I accidentally over poured the sesame oil a bit, but love that flavor so thought no big deal.
It still seemed to be missing something to add to the fullness of flavor that I was expecting. We both thought salt and pepper might be the missing element but that wasn’t it. I used honey instead of brown sugar.
If anyone has suggestions, I am willing to retry.
Melissa, sounds like you made a completely different recipe! LOL
Perhaps the reason you felt the salad was missing something was, well, because you were missing a lot of the recipe’s ingredients! Try it again as it was intended before saying it wasn’t all that good. Try new things. You might like it!