Asian Chicken Salad with Ginger Sesame Dressing

Asian chicken salad with homemade ginger sesame dressing is a great, easy-to-throw-together salad for one of those days when you have too much spinach, some leftover chicken, and too many other odd veggies at your disposal.

Combining all these ingredients together with a flavorful, sweet and sour Asian dressing turns this salad into a restaurant-quality addictive meal! It’s healthy, lean, and easy, and it takes only 30 minutes to prepare, at most. Highly recommended!

I love the concept of a chicken salad because it is great for putting any leftover chicken to good use, or utilizing that bland tasting, over-cooked, over-boiled chicken that you don’t want to eat. Any chicken will do here: boiled, fried, shredded, rotisserie chicken, etc.
All vegetables are finely chopped to ensure that you’re getting a little bit of everything with each bite. The ginger sesame dressing is out of this world and is very easy to make from scratch if you have basic Asian ingredients in your pantry. When made from scratch, it’s better than anything bottled up!
I also love how bright and colorful the salad looks, especially after you apply the dressing!

Ingredients

• Salad dressing:
• 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh ginger or 1/2 teaspoon powder ginger
• 1 to 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 3 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted
• Salad:
• 6 cups baby spinach leaves, washed, and dried
• 1 large carrot, shredded
• 1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
• 1/4 of a whole red onion, thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds toasted
• 2 cups shredded rotisserie chicken or grilled chicken, sliced

Instructions

1. Combine all salad dressing ingredients, except for sesame seeds, and using only 1 tablespoon of soy sauce. Whisk until emulsified. Taste your dressing and add another 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, if desired, to make it saltier. Add 2 tablespoons sesame seeds to the dressing and mix them in.
2. Combine all salad ingredients in a large bowl, except for 1 tablespoon of sesame seeds and chicken. Add the salad dressing to the salad and toss - do not add all salad dressing at once: you might not need all of it. Add just enough salad dressing to coat the salad ingredients.
3. Serve the salad in the individual serving bowls and top with the remaining 1 tablespoon of sesame seeds and sliced chicken.

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