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Whether you’re doing a January Whole30 or headed back to the office after months of working from home, this Vietnamese-Inspired Shredded Chicken Salad is a great make-and-take lunch that stays well in the fridge the whole week. Inspired by Goi Ga, this shredded-chicken salad is bright and crunchy with three kinds of cabbage, lots of herbs, toasted cashews, and rotisserie chicken to make it easy.
There’s a lot of chopping and shredding in the beginning, but this is mostly assembly. If you have a mandolin and/or a food processor with a shredding attachment, this will be pretty quick.
As is, when pre-dressed; the salad lasts about 3 days in the fridge. The cabbage does lose a bit of its crunch, and the salt from the fish sauce makes the veggies release a bit of water. To make it last for about a week of lunches, keep the dressing in the fridge and mix together the chicken, veg and herbs. When you’re ready to serve it, dress it on the spot.
If you are not doing the Whole30, add about 2 teaspoons of coconut sugar to the dressing to help balance out the salt and acid.
Hope you enjoy this Vietnamese-Inspired Shredded Chicken Salad!
Vietnamese Inspired Shredded Chicken Salad
Ingredients
- 1 Tbsp. rice wine vinegar
- ½ small red onion – very thinly sliced
- FOR THE DRESSING:
- ¼ cup avocado oil
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 inch nub ginger – finely grated
- 1 Fresno chile – thinly sliced
- 1 tsp. lime zest
- 2 Tbsp. lime juice – about the juice of one lime
- 1 Tbsp. fresh orange juice
- 1 Tbsp. rice wine vinegar
- 2 Tbsp. coconut aminos
- 1 Tbsp. fish sauce – I use Red Boat brand
- FOR THE SALAD:
- 2 cups shredded rotisserie chicken
- 4 cups very thinly shredded napa cabbage
- 2 cups very thinly shredded purple cabbage
- 2 cups very thinly shredded green cabbage
- 2 medium carrots – julienned
- 1 red bell pepper – cut into matchsticks
- 1 cup packed cilantro – chopped plus more for garnish
- 1 cup packed mint – chopped plus more for garnish
- ½ cup finely chopped toasted cashews
- Lime wedges
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, add the rice wine vinegar and the onions. Mix, making sure the onions are all coated in a bit of vinegar. Set aside to pickle while you prepare the rest.
- FOR THE DRESSING:
- In a medium saucepan, add the avocado oil. Turn the heat to medium high and heat the oil until it is hot but not smoking. Add the garlic, ginger, and Fresno chile to a wide mouth mason jar. Carefully, pour the hot oil over the aromatics in the jar. Give it a stir, and set aside, allowing the flavors to bloom, about three minutes. Once the oil has cooled a bit, add the lime zest, juice, orange juice, rice wine vinegar, coconut aminos, and fish sauce. Cover the jar with a lid and shake the jar vigorously to combine. Set aside.
- FOR THE SALAD:
- In a medium bowl, add the shredded chicken and a few tablespoons of dressing. Mix to combine. Rotisserie chicken can be a bit dry, so this helps the chicken absorb some of flavor before adding it to the veggies.
- In the large mixing bowl with the pickled onions, add the napa cabbage, purple cabbage, green cabbage, shredded carrots, and red bell pepper. Add a tablespoon of dressing, and using tongs, really massage it into the greens, Add in the dressed chicken, and a bit more dressing. Continue to toss until everything is combined well. Add in the herbs, give it another toss, and taste for seasoning.
- To serve, top with a generous amount of toasted cashews and lime wedges. Enjoy!
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This is delicious! My 10 year old daughter love it so much she brought it for lunch 2 days as well! Alex, you never disappoint!!
I would love nutritional info for this.
If you want to eat for lunches do you toss the whole salad or is it better to dress each day you eat it?
Hi! I left a note about this in the blog post 🙂 Here is my tip for that!
–As is, when pre-dressed; the salad lasts about 3 days in the fridge. The cabbage does lose a bit of its crunch, and the salt from the fish sauce makes the veggies release a bit of water. To make it last for about a week of lunches, keep the dressing in the fridge and mix together the chicken, veg and herbs. When you’re ready to serve it, dress it on the spot.
Does anyone know the nutitional breakdown of this recipe? Calories, Carbs, Protein, and Fat?
Do you put the garlic cloves in whole or mince/chop for the dressing?
Alex,
Just made this for my January Whole30 meal prep and it is delicious! I cannot wait to eat it for lunch all week!
Thank You!
Hey, I didn’t know to get in touch with you. I made your lemon-garlic green beans today and they were wonderful. I used your recipe book ‘Healthy and Wholesome Weeknight Recipes’ but, I think you left out the thinly sliced garlic from the recipe?
Hi Vickie,
Yes– Unfortunately that was an error in the book we missed 🙁
I am excited to taste this tonight! I will say i love chopping but the zesting, squeezing, roasting, slicing , shredding and dicing the many ingredients in this is a doozy!
My husband & I loved this salad…very fresh tasting! The perfect dinner salad when wanting to cut back the carbs. Yes, a little bit of extra work & effort but so worth it.
This was delicious. Trader Joe’s has an organic pre-shredded green and purple cabbage with carrots that makes this so much easier. I also keep their cubed crushed frozen ginger on hand at all times.
Thanks for this…can’t wait to try it! I make a Chinese chicken salad that’s similar and on weeks I want to cut down on at least a little bit of the chopping, I buy the bags of coleslaw mix at the grocery store (the bags of mixed cabbages and carrots without dressing packets). It costs a little more, but it saves a lot of time for me!
yes such a great time saver!!! coleslaw bags are the best when you don’t want to shred + slice
Best replacement for a Fresno Chile? My store doesn’t have them
You can use 1 jalapeno or 2 thai chiles!