Cool off with this super easy, super make-ahead Asian Chicken Noodle Salad. It’s full of crisp, crunchy veggies, hearty chicken, and a delectable dressing.
I remember when I was growing up we ate a lot of chicken. Often it was simply Baked Chicken with crisp, salty, peppery skin. Yum!
Other times Mom mixed chicken into casseroles, like in my favorite, Curried Chicken and Broccoli Casserole. We didn’t know anything about Indian food, so we just called it “Chicken Curry.” Regardless of what you call it, I love that stuff.
Chicken is usually pretty economical — in some form, and it is generally considered a healthy protein, provided you remove the crisp, salty, peppery skin. (But, why would you want to do that?)
This Asian Chicken Noodle Salad is one of the favorite chicken recipes I make for my family today now that I’m all growed up. Oh, I still make chicken curry and baked chicken, but I make this more often than not.
It’s so good, first of all. And it’s the perfect dish for summer since everything can be made ahead. Plus, you can cook the chicken on the grill, keeping the heat where it should be — out of doors.
The roots of this recipe are found in an ancient issue of Bon Appetit magazine, probably 1992 or 1993. I’ve tweaked it over the years, removing certain herbs like basil and mint — too sophisticated for 20th century me — and adding in other things, like noodles. I got that tip from the Pioneer Woman back in 2008. I had never before thought to add noodles to a green salad!
Nowadays, because I’m a practical mom of six, some of whom are very picky about their veggies, I serve this salad as a salad bar. I pull out a small bowl for tossing ingredients together and everyone chooses exactly what he wants in his salad, despite my protestations that the correct answer is EVERYTHING.
Add this Asian Chicken Noodle Salad to your summer rotation and see if you don’t absolutely love it! To make it easy to work it into your week, I’ve included it in this FREE printable weekly meal plan.
Asian Chicken Noodle Salad
Cool off with this super easy, super make-ahead Asian Chicken Noodle Salad. It’s full of crisp, crunchy veggies, hearty chicken, and a delectable dressing.
Preparation Time:10 minutes
Cook time:0 minutes
Total time:35 minutes
8 to 12 servings
Ingredients:
- 1 pound linguini, cooked according to package directions, rinsed and drained
- 4 grilled chicken breast halves, chopped or 4 cups chopped cooked chicken
- 1/2 head green cabbage, shredded
- 1 head romaine lettuce, torn into bite sized pieces
- 1 red bell pepper, julienne cut
- 2 carrots, peeled and grated
- 3 green onions, chopped
- 1 can sliced water chestnuts
- 1/2 cup toasted slivered almonds
- 1 bunch cilantro, rinsed
- 6 Tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 1/2 Tablespoons rice wine vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 teaspoon wasabi powder
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1/4 cup sesame oil
- 3/4 cup vegetable oil
Instructions:
- Prepare all of the salad components. .
- Prepare the salad dressing by whisking together the soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, crushed red pepper flakes, wasabi powder, garlic, and oils. .
- We like to serve all the elements separately: chicken, noodles, vegetables, and dressing – kind of like an Asian flavored salad bar. In this way diners can choose how much they want of each component..
Originally published July 9, 2009. Updated May 6, 2017.
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That looks yummy! Thanks for hosting another great URS!
~Liz
I love cooking with chicken. Growing up one of my favorite dishes was also chicken divan. I have so many dishes I'd like to share, I think I need my own blog 🙂
Here are a few of my favorites:
Chicken Pot Pie
Filling:
2 cooked chicken breasts diced
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup milk
1 cup frozen mixed vegetables
Onion & Garlic Powder (to taste)
Salt & Pepper (to taste)
combine milk and soup then add remaining ingredients in a glass pie dish
Topper:
2 cups Bisquick
2/3 cup milk
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon old bay seasoning
Mix Bisquick, milk and cheese – spread over filling in a glass pie dish. Bake at 350* until golden brown and bubbly (approx 30 mins) then top will melted butter garlic & old bay seasoning. Delicious!!
Chicken Tortilla Soup
Chicken Buns
Bourbon Chicken
ooh that salad looks amazing, i like that it uses cabbage. i can't believe the quantities in your salad, it would take my family 543 days to eat up all that salad!
I posted my Caribbean Chicken with Pineapple Salsa. I made it for Madeline's 1st bday party – we had a tropical BBQ bash and everyone loved it.
One of my other favorites is my mom's green chile chicken enchiladas, and I can't believe that I haven't blogged them yet. They are dinner for tonight, so hopefully I'll get some good pictures!
Two "go-to" chicken recipes in our house: (we LOVE BBQ sauce, BTW!
BBQ Chicken Pizza: mix chopped, cooked chicken with bbq sauce and spead over bbq sauce-topped pizza crust and top with mont. jack cheese or any cheese for that matter!! Bake till cheese melts.
BBQ Chicken Rice: Make your favorite boxed rice mix (or rice from scratch) and stir in a cup or 2 of chopped cooked chicken and a generous amount of , yep!, BBQ Sauce! We add frozen peas and carrots sometimes, too!
My kids (8, 10, 13) would eat either of these every night of the week!
Thanks for all the great recipes!
This is such a great idea. How do I find the previous swaps?
Are there details how to go about joining?
Thanks.
Silly me. I found the directions in this post. Thanks anyway.
Wow! Sounds amazing. Might be a good idea before running the family out the door tonight. 5pm graduation at the Oceanside Pier makes for difficult dinner preparations Thanks!.
I live in Asia and we don’t eat chicken so I tried this recipe with a certain kind of gluten that’s very common here. It was awesome. Definitely a keeper. My husband loved it and he usually doesn’t go for salad as a main dish because he likes to be “filled up”. Really great. I didn’t have sesame oil on hand so used tahini instead. Really wonderful. I love all of your recipes.