Chicken Tender-Peanut Chopped Salad is a crunchy and fresh salad tossed in an easy peanut dressing and sprinkled with chopped peanuts and cilantro. It’s a great way to turn deli chicken fingers into a lunch or light dinner.
This salad can be made start to finish in under 15 minutes and it is kid-friendly.
I love to use chicken tenders from the Publix deli for this recipe. They are so good and crunchy. You could use frozen chicken tenders and bake them instead.
This salad is amazingly colorful and full of shredded coleslaw mix, red cabbage, romaine, shredded carrots, bell pepper, and cilantro. Edamame and cucumbers are also great additions.
The peanut dressing has a wonderful sweet and salty flavor. It’s made from creamy peanut butter, lime juice, brown sugar, soy sauce, rice vinegar, toasted sesame oil, and red pepper flakes for a little heat.
HOW TO MAKE IN ADVANCE:
The dressing can be made several days in advance. If it is too thick, just whisk in a little water. The salad can be prepped a day in advance too. Just don’t mix the two together until just before serving.
CHICKEN TENDER-PEANUT CHOPPED SALAD RECIPE TIPS:
If you want to make this salad a little healthier, use chopped rotisserie chicken instead of fried chicken tenders.
This is quite a large salad and can easily feed 4 people as a main dish.
The base of this salad is cabbage which makes it ultra crunchy and goes really well with the peanut dressing. If you aren’t a huge fan of cabbage, increase the romaine and decrease the cabbage.
Try These Other Amazing Salad Recipes:
- Italian Layered Salad
- Blue Cheese Chopped Salad with Craisins and Candied Pecans
- Strawberry Fields Salad
- Southern Cornbread Salad
- Barbecue-Ranch Cornbread Salad
Chicken Tender-Peanut Chopped Salad
Ingredients
Peanut Dressing
- 3 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
- 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar
- 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
Salad
- 3 cups shredded coleslaw mix
- 2 cups shredded red cabbage
- 2 cups chopped romaine or mixed greens
- 1/2 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
- 1 medium carrot, peeled and shredded
- 3 green onions, sliced
- 1 pound fried chicken tenders, chopped
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
- 1/2 cup dry-roasted peanuts, chopped
Instructions
- Place peanut butter, lime juice, brown sugar, soy sauce, and rice vinegar in a small bowl. Microwave for 10 seconds. Whisk until smooth.Whisk in sesame oil and red pepper flakes. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine coleslaw mix, red cabbage, lettuce, red bell pepper, carrot, green onions, chicken tenders, and cilantro.
- Drizzle with dressing and toss to combine.Sprinkle with peanuts and serve.
