Summer is salad season and if you are board with plain old lettuce, tomato and cucumber salads with ranch dressing or italian dressing, etc., then try this salad inspired by the flavours of your favourite Chinese takeout dish, kung pao chicken. The salad itself is pretty simple with lettuce (I like to use kale sometimes), chicken, peppers, cucumbers, carrots, green onions and peanuts but it’s the tasty dressing that really makes this salad shine! The sichuan flavour inspired dressing starts out with the usual suspects including rice vinegar, oil, soy sauce, garlic, ginger and some sesame oil for that amazing aroma. The main focus of the dressing is of course the sichuan chili oil which is an oil that is infused with chilies and sichuan peppercorns where the chilies provide the spicy heat and the sichuan peppercorns add their signature mouth numbing effect in addition to a fabulous aroma. (You should be able to find the sichuan peppercorns at your local asian grocery store or you can order them online or you can just omit them.) The dressing is finished off with some sesame paste or peanut butter making it nice and thick and creamy! When you combine the tasty and spicy dressing with the cool and crunchy salad it’s like a magical symphony of flavours and textures in your mouth! The next time you have a craving for kung pao chicken, try this salad instead; it’s lighter, healthier and it can be made in just 15 minutes!
Note: The recipe as written gives a very mildly spicy dressing so if you don’t like heat it’s perfect for you! If you do like things spicy, add as much sambal oelek or sriracha as desired! (I add a lot! 🙂
A nice and clean presentation.
Add dressing.
Mix everything up and enjoy!
Kung Pao Chicken Salad with Sichuan Dressing
A kung pao chicken inspired salad with a tasty, spicy and creamy dressing with sichuan Chinese style flavours including sichuan peppercorns.
ingredients
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon black rice vinegar, aka Chinkiang or balsamic vinegar
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1 teaspoon sichuan chili oil
- 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon garlic, grated
- 1 teaspoon ginger, grated
- 1 teaspoon brown sugar
- 1/2 tablespoon sesame paste or tahini or peanut butter
- 6 cups salad green such as romaine, kale, etc, sliced
- 2 cups cooked chicken, shredded or sliced
- 1 red pepper, sliced
- 1 cucumber, sliced
- 2 carrots, julienned or sliced
- 1/4 cup peanuts, toasted and coarsely chopped
- 1/4 cup green onions, sliced
For the sichuan dressing:
For the salad:
directions
- Mix everything well.
- Toss everything with the dressing and enjoy!
For the sichuan dressing:
For the salad:
Kung Pao Chicken
Sweet Chili Chicken Salad
Banh Mi Chicken Salad
Dan Dan Mian (Noodles in Spicy Chinese Peanut Pork Sauce)
Bang Bang Chicken
Southwestern Grilled Chicken Jalapeno Popper Salad
Korean Style Cold Tofu Shirataki Noodle Salad with Shrimp
Grilled Chicken and Asparagus Caprese Spinach Salad with Bacon and Avocado
Dandan Noodles (Tantanmen Ramen)
Sichuan Poached Beef (Shuizhu)
Cilantro Lemon Tahini Dressing
this is exactly the kind of summer food I'm craving right now!
Kevin, I love this salad!!!!!
Gorgeous gorgeous salad!!!
Now this is my kind of healthy salad!
This looks amazing. I love "meal salads" and especially one with Asian ingredients. Can't wait to give this one a try!
I just found dinner for tonight. Looks so yummy.
We enjoyed this wonderful, flavorful salad last night for dinner. So fresh and delicious!! I did double the dressing as we like plenty of dressing. Thanks, Kevin, for yet another awesome recipe!!!!!!!!
That looks delicious!