This Asian chicken salad revolutionizes the usual ho-hum chicken on salad greens. And it couldn’t be easier. Gently poached chicken is jumbled together with baby bok choy, oranges, and roasted cashews and the whole shebang is tossed with miso vinaigrette. And it’s on the table in less than 30 minutes. Who knew healthy could be so delicious?!–Angie Zoobkoff
Asian Chicken Salad
Ingredients
For the Asian chicken salad
- Four (5-ounce) boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 2 to 4 cups store-bought or homemade chicken stock
- 12 ounces baby bok choy
- 1 small shallot, thinly sliced
- 4 (about 2 lbs total) navel oranges, peeled and segmented
- 1/2 cup roasted cashews
- Kosher salt
For the miso vinaigrette
- 3 tablespoons red, yellow, or white miso
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
- 1 cup rice wine vinegar
- 3 tablespoons mild vegetable oil
- 1 clove garlic, thinly sliced
Instructions
Start the Asian chicken salad
- In a large skillet over high heat, place the chicken breasts in a single layer and add just enough chicken stock to barely cover the chicken. Bring to a very gentle simmer and then decrease the heat to low so the stock doesn’t even bubble. Gently cook the chicken until it’s just tender but not quite cooked through, 3 to 6 minutes. Remove from the heat and keep the chicken submerged until it’s cooked through, 2 to 5 minutes more.
Make the miso vinaigrette
- While the chicken is cooking, combine the vinaigrette ingredients in a jar with a lid and shake to mix well or whisk the ingredients together in a bowl.
Assemble the Asian chicken salad
- Slice or shred the chicken into bite-size pieces. Cut the white stalks of the bok choy crosswise into pieces 1/4-inch (6-mm) wide; keep the green leaves whole. Combine the bok choy in a bowl with the shallot, orange segments, cashews, and chicken. Season with salt and dress with some of the miso vinaigrette. Serve with additional miso dressing on the side. (You can cover and refrigerate any leftover miso dressing.)
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Recipe Testers’ Reviews
We really enjoyed this Asian chicken salad as a light, healthy, easy weeknight meal. The dressing and oranges really complemented each other and there was a great combination of textures in the dish. I supremed the oranges over the salad bowl so that any juices would be in the salad as well. I enjoyed the extra orange juice mingled with the dressing. I used regular soy sauce for the dressing, and though I didn’t find it too salty, it definitely didn’t need any extra salt to finish the salad.
This Asian chicken salad comes together quickly. Our chicken breasts were very thick and needed double the poaching time, but came out moist and perfect for the salad. We will make this salad again and again, next time adding cilantro and avocado. Simple, fresh and good–perfect weeknight summer fare.
After coming home after a hot day at the beach, I was able to put this surprising combination together very quickly. It’s light yet filling and has so much flavor! The oranges and cashews are perfect with the miso dressing. A great summertime salad loved by the whole family! Since I used a larger bok choy, the leaves needed to be chopped as they were too big to leave whole. I’m sure baby bok choy is very tender, but the large one had a good texture and I thought it was fine for this salad. I sliced the chicken as in the picture. This was served in individual bowls and used 2 tablespoons vinaigrette per serving. It’s a very thin dressing so you could use 3 tablespoons if desired. The miso paste clumped up a bit initially. I let it sit a few minutes and it dissolved nicely. So, next time, I’ll make the dressing first to make sure it incorporates without having to shake it excessively.
To test this recipe, I halved the recipe for supper for my husband and myself. I enjoyed it much more than my husband. He ate his portion but isn’t excited about having it again. He said the dressing was too tangy, too sweet with the acidic dressing. Maybe that’s because I used clementines instead of oranges? I would enjoy eating this salad as a lunch that I would bring to work. It could be easily assembled in the morning with leftover chicken, dressing on the side, and the cashews as an add-on topping. The flavor is light and all the ingredients healthy. Seeing that both my husband and I don’t enjoy it I don’t think I’ll be making this again anytime soon. However, I have plenty of leftover dressing so I’ll be having the leftovers as my lunch for a few more days this week.
