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This crispy chicken cabbage salad is made super easy using rotisserie chicken and crisping it up in olive oil with lemongrass, ginger, and garlic. That’s combined with lots of fresh chopped cabbage, minced herbs, apples, and a light squeeze of lime.
I love salad, but I love it even more when I can call it a full-on meal! My favorite combo is anything that combines a good source of protein and lots and lots of crunchy vegetables.
Luckily for all of us, this crunchy chicken cabbage slaw exists! It’s so dang good because it’s packed with crispy rotisserie chicken flavored with lemongrass, ginger, and garlic and tossed with cabbage, apples, fresh herbs, and fresh lime juice and zest.
It’s fresh, crispy, and perfect for every single season. That’s right. This salad is both a winter and a summer salad!
I like using rotisserie chicken for this recipe because the meat is naturally juicy, tender, and easy to prep. I can buy the chicken the day before, let it cool, pick off the meat, shred it, and throw together the salad the next day.
It’s the perfect make-ahead recipe!
This salad tastes great the longer you let it sit in the fridge. It’s beyond perfect.
Ingredients needed
- Rotisserie chicken
- Olive oil
- Lemongrass
- Ginger
- Garlic
- Red cabbage
- Green cabbage
- Green apple
- Red onion
- Parsley
- Cilantro
- Mint
- Lime juice and zest
- Kosher salt
My Pro Tips
Crispy Chicken Cabbage Salad Recipe Tips
Use rotisserie chicken for this dish, as it makes it easy and crisps up wonderfully! The crisp, crunchy chicken pieces are an essential element of this salad.
If you want added sweetness you can add in some dried cranberries for the perfect sweet tart bite.
Use grated lemongrass, ginger, and garlic for the oil/chicken mixture. My favorite thing to use is the little squeeze herbs from Gourmet Garden.
I love the green and red cabbage mix, but you could easily mix red and napa cabbage, all green, or all red cabbage. This salad is flexible.
Use fresh lime juice and zest if you have it on hand. It does make a difference.
How to crisp up rotisserie chicken
The key part of this salad is crisping up the rotisserie chicken in olive oil and mixing it with grated lemongrass, ginger, and garlic. It is a flavor wonderland.
First, you must pick the meat off the rotisserie chicken and remove the skin, bones, and funky little bits. I like to do this the day before to make the salad easier and faster.
Add olive oil, let it get hot, add the chicken, DON’T TOUCH IT, let it brown, and then toss to try and crisp the other side.
It’s essential not to move the chicken around too much in the oil because you’re simply crisping it up since it’s already fully cooked.
Let it cool slightly after crisping, and stir in the lemongrass, ginger, and garlic.
More salad recipes
Crispy Chicken Cabbage Salad
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1 full rotisserie chicken, skin removed meat picked off and shredded
- 1 tablespoon grated ginger
- 1 tablespoon grated lemongrass
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 2 cups shredded red cabbage
- 2 cups shredded green cabbage, or napa cabbage
- 1/2 cup minced fresh parsley
- 1/2 cup minced fresh cilantro
- 1/2 cup diced red onion
- 1/4 cup minced fresh mint
- 1/4 cup lime juice
- 1 zested lime
- 1 large green apple, cut into matchsticks
- Kosher salt, to taste
Instructions
- In a 12-inch skillet add your olive oil and set over medium-high heat.
- Once the oil is hot and shimmery add your chicken and let it sit for about 5 minutes to create little crispy bits on your chicken.
- Give it a gentle toss to crisp up the other sides of the shredded chicken.
- Remove from the heat and stir in grated ginger, lemongrass, and garlic.
- Toss to evenly distribute the flavors throughout the chicken.
- Let it cool slightly while you prepare the salad.
- In a large bowl add shredded red cabbage, shredded napa cabbage, minced parsley, cilantro mint, red onion, lime juice, lime zest, and matchstick apples.
- Add in the slightly cooled chicken and toss to combine.
- If the salad is too dry drizzle in just a few tablespoons of olive oil.
- Taste and season with the desired amount of kosher salt.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I love all the colors in this salad!
I could make an entire meal out of this dish! Can’t wait to whip it up!
The perfect time for crispy salads for sure. It looks amazing. So super awesome you got to meet him. I have always liked him!
Heck Yes! This made me laugh because I am the same way! Cocktails, grilled food equals summer! I cannot wait to try this crispy chicken! The salad looks amazing!
Now this is my kind of salad!! Its fantastic!!
That looks sooooo good, I’ve got to try it!
This salad looks awesome – def going to try it with cranberries! Meeting Steven Tyler is also awesome – what a great story!
Crispy chicken salad…count me in. This sounds delicious.