Copycat Houlihan's Asian Chicken Salad Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is Chinese chicken salad made of? ›

In a large bowl, combine Napa cabbage, red cabbage, carrot, scallions, water chestnuts, Mandarin orange and sliced chicken. In a separate bowl, whisk together 3 tablespoons soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, ginger, oil, 1 1/2 teaspoons sesame oil, brown sugar and chili sauce. Pour dressing over salad and toss to combine.

Most chicken salad dressings are a combination of mayonnaise, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. The rest of the flavor for this dish comes from ingredients like celery and fresh herbs.

But what many don't realize is that it was created not in China but in the kitchen of Sylvia Cheng Wu, a Chinese immigrant who cooked for Hollywood superstars. Our recipe takes inspiration from Wu's original creation as well as versions popularized by chefs who reinterpreted the dish including Wolfgang Puck.

This super crispy chicken is served over greens with a combination of my favorite mediterranean salad ingredients, like tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, red onion, fresh dill and more. It's salad dinner gold! Anytime I make a salad for dinner, I compare it to something as good as this.

Chopped garlic whisked together with soy, chili flakes, toasted sesame oil and rice wine vinegar… Go to Recipe!

All white meat, shredded chicken, finely minced celery, mayonnaise, & our secret seasoning.

How to make chicken salad taste better. The secret ingredient you should be adding to your chicken salad is pickle juice (via Cookies and Cups). You can (and should) add chopped pickles for extra tang and crunch, but if you like to keep things simple, just a splash or two of the pickle juice will do.

Served in a large aluminum bowl, it consists of a bed of greens with sliced iceberg lettuce; a few tomatoes, green peppers, and cucumbers; a handful or two of shredded low-moisture mozzarella cheese; a grilled chicken breast, sliced; and then, gloriously, a pile of hot, crispy, matchstick French fries.

Freshly prepared salad with grilled chicken breast, lettuce, cucumber, sliced tomato and red onion.

In Fashionable Food: Seven Decades of Food Fads, Sylvia Lovegren writes, "There are many different types of cold chicken salad in China, although most of them seem to originate in Szechwan.

Did Wolfgang Puck invent Chinese chicken salad? ›

Invented by Sylvia Cheng Wu also known as Madame Wu in the 60s and made popular by the original celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck, The Chinese chicken salad has become an obsession in California, especially with celebrities. It's not hard to see why.

Jennifer Aniston's Salad refers to the one she ate while at the set of FRIENDS. She says that it's a cobb salad made at the commissary that they “basically butchered.” She added more ingredients to make it tastier, basically. It's actually a salad with lots of ingredients and the flavour is incredible.

Chicken

Chicken salad / Main ingredient

Waldorf salad is named for the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York City, where it was first created for a charity ball given in honor of the St. Mary's Hospital for Children on March 13, 1896.

It was adopted by Jewish immigrants to the Levant in the late 19th century, who found the locally grown Kirby cucumbers and tomatoes in popular local salad. It was popularized in the kibbutzim, where the Jewish farmers had local fresh produce at hand. The name Israeli Salad is used mainly outside of Israel.

Chicken

Chicken salad / Main ingredient

Made Fresh & Served from the Heart

Our chicken salads are made fresh in-house every morning using premium chicken tenderloin, sweet and savory ingredients, and our secret blend of spices and seasonings—you won't find frozen or packaged around here.

This sweet and sour chicken stir-fry is a version of the Asian-style favorite that includes carrots, bell pepper, garlic, and pineapple. The requisite soy sauce and vinegar add the sour to the sweet, and voila! Serve over hot cooked rice, if desired.