Asian chicken chopped salad is loaded with hearty veggies and lean chicken to make a hearty and vibrant meal prep salad!
Asian chicken chopped salad is an ultra vibrant, ultra crunchy, ultra peanut-ty meal prep lunch that that will make boring lunch salads a thing of the past for you.
What is a chopped salad?
A chopped salad has all of the typical salad flavors, but the textures and assembly are a bit different.
Just as the name suggests, a chopped salad has all of your ingredients chopped into pieces, instead of sliced.
Chopped salads are really great for those who love a hearty crunchy salad!
Variations for your Asian chicken chopped salad
You can easily swap the chicken for shrimp if that is more of your style - or you can even leave out the meat protein altogether.
For even more crunch, you can add in some crunchy noodles or crispy wontons. Just make sure to only add those right when you want to enjoy your salad, or those will go soggy.
Adding mandarin orange slides or even some sugar snap peas would be a great fit for this salad, too.
Not a fan of cabbage? swap that for chopped romaine lettuce.
What you need for your chopped salad:
- Napa Cabbage - this type of cabbage is softer and sweeter than "regular" cabbage, and it is my prepference when I am eating cabbage raw in a salad.
- Julienne carrots - to compliment the texture of all of the chopped veggies, mix it up a bit and ad julienne carrots. A julienne peeler is the way to do this! I have this julienne peeler.
- Chopped veggies - red pepper, yellow pepper, scallion, red onion
- Peanuts - for even more crunch! Make sure you add these only at time of eating.
- Cilantro - if it doesn't taste like soap to you!
- Chicken breast - If you are short on time, buy a pre cooked rotisserie chicken to use in your prep! If you don't buy a pre made chicken for this, you can bake your chicken breasts. I use this no fail method from Sweet Peas and Saffron to bake my chicken just right.
How to make your meal prep salad last 4 days pre prepped.
This salad holds up really well as a meal prep salad because of the hearty ingredients.
The key to making this salad stay crunchy all the way to day 4 is to make sure your chopped veggies (the peppers!) are dry.
Chop your peppers and then place them on a clean tea towel or paper towels to try and remove as much excess moisture as possible, then add them to your salad.
What kind of containers are here?
In these images, I am using the IKEA 365 glass containers, and for the dressing, I use these condiment size containers (affiliate link).
I also highly recommend the Rubbermaid brilliance containers for salad (and all non microwave meal preps!)
Looking for more salads that hold up well for meal prep? Check out these ones on the blog!
Mediterranean Chopped Chicken Salad
8 Meal Prep Salads you will want to eat!
When you add this chopped salad to your meal plan, I want to see it! Tag me @mealplanaddict in your creations on Instagram!
Recipe
Asian Chicken Chopped Salad
Equipment
- 4, minimum 4 cup capacity meal prep containers
Ingredients
Salad Ingredients
- 1 small head napa cabbage (or swap with romaine hearts)
- 3 carrots, cut julienne
- 1 red pepper, chopped
- 1 yellow pepper, chopped
- 3 scallions / green onion, chopped
- ¼ small red onion, diced adjust to your preference
- 2 large baked chicken breasts, sliced thin
- peanuts, for garnish
- cilantro, for garnish
Peanut Dressing
- ¼ cup peanut butter
- ¼ cup olive oil
- ¼ cup water
- ¼ cup rice vinegar
- 2 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 small clove garlic, minced go easy on raw garlic!
- a pinch of red pepper flakes (optional)
Instructions
Salad Assembly
- Divide all of the salad ingredients evenly into each container, with the cabbage on the bottom of the container.
- Keep peanuts separate or they will soften a bit.
Dressing
- Place all of the dressing ingredients into a blender or food processor and blend until smooth
- Divide dressing into 4 small (2 Tbsp) containers.
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