Happy Saturday, everyone! I hope your weekend is off to a good start. I wanted to take a few moments to share a salad I made this week with some of the leftovers in my kitchen. It all started with the double batch of Simple Sesame Dressing that I made for my Roasted Broccoli Salad earlier this week. Despite being fairly inexpensive, I didn’t want that dressing to go to waste. So, I paired it with a can of mandarin oranges that have been in my pantry FOR-EV-ER, one of the avocados I picked up on a post-cinco-de-mayo sale, and part of the rotisserie chicken that I’d been nibbling on all week. The flavors and textures came together beautifully in this sweet-salty-creamy-and-crunchy Chicken and Mandarin Salad.
Alternative Ingredients
I’m sure not everyone will have the same leftovers that I had, so I want to offer a few alternate ingredients that I think would work well. Instead of tender baby greens you can use finely shredded cabbage, or even bagged coleslaw mix. Not a fan of canned mandarin oranges? Try a diced mango instead. No sliced almonds? Try some chow mein or broken up ramen noodles for crunch instead.
Chicken and Mandarin Salad with Simple Sesame Dressing
Servings 2Ingredients
SIMPLE SESAME DRESSING
- 2 Tbsp light or neutral oil* ($0.08)
- 1 Tbsp rice vinegar ($0.12)
- 4 tsp soy sauce ($0.13)
- 1 tsp toasted sesame oil ($0.11)
- 1 Tbsp brown sugar ($0.02)
- 1 tsp grated fresh ginger ($0.04)
- 1/2 Tbsp sesame seeds ($0.04)
SALAD
- 6 cups salad greens** ($1.25)
- 11oz can mandarin oranges ($0.77)
- 1 rotisserie chicken breast ($1.50)
- 1/4 cup sliced almonds ($0.50)
- 1/4 small red onion ($0.14)
- 1/2 avocado ($0.50)
Instructions
- Prepare the dressing first, so the flavors have a few minutes to blend. In a small bowl or jar, whisk together the oil, vinegar, soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, brown sugar, ginger, and sesame seeds. Set the dressing aside.
- Slice the red onion very thinly and soak the slices for a few minutes in ice water to take the edge off. Drain the can of mandarin oranges. Slice the avocado and chop the chicken breast.
- To assemble the salads, place about 3 cups of salad greens in each bowl or plate. Top with mandarin orange segments, chopped chicken, sliced avocado, and a few slices of the soaked red onion. Give the dressing one last whisk and then drizzle it over the salads. The dressing is potent, so start with a small amount and add more as needed.
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Notes
Nutrition
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How to Make Chicken and Mandarin Salad – Step by Step Photos
Make the dressing first, so the flavors have a few minutes to blend (this is a double batch pictured). In a small jar or bowl, whisk together 2 Tbsp light or neutral oil, 1 Tbsp rice vinegar, 4 tsp soy sauce, 1 tsp toasted sesame oil, 1 Tbsp brown sugar, 1 tsp fresh grated ginger, and 1/2 Tbsp sesame seeds.
Here’s a really handy trick for red onions, which can be a bit strong sometimes (I love their flavor, but they can be over powering and sometimes give me a stomach ache). Slicing them VERY thinly can help balance their strong flavor with the rest of the foods you’re eating (big chunks or thick slices = potent). Soaking them for about 5 minutes in ice water also really takes the edge or the bite off the onion.
You can use just about any salad green for this, but I chose this mix of baby greens (because I’m also going to use it in pasta and some for smoothies). Salad greens can be expensive if you’re buying the small bags, but larger bags or tubs of greens are usually much less per pound. It’s hard to tell in this photo, but this bag is about 3-4 times the size of a regular bagged salad.
To build the salad, place about 3 cups of salad greens to each large bowl or plate, along chopped rotisserie chicken breast, sliced avocado, mandarin orange segments, some of the sliced red onion, and about 2 Tbsp sliced almonds per salad.
Give the dressing one last whisk, then drizzle it over the salad. Go slowly and add more if needed after stirring the salad.
And that’s it! This Chicken and Mandarin Salad might be the most epic “leftover” meal I’ve ever made. :D
This is delicious! Since I’m both cheap and lazy, I will often substitute a sort of tuna salad (tuna, greek yogurt, the sesame dressing, and siracha) in for the chicken and it still tastes great.
This is my new favorite salad for summer! I can’t deal with red onions, so I left those out. Also, I forgot to grab avocado at the store, so I subbed goat cheese instead. Delicious!
This salad is great, especially when you consider how little work is involved. The dressing is a keeper, too.
We loved this salad. Only need half the dressing, so saved the rest of the dressing for later. Also sprinkled some crunchy Asian trail mix on top for added crunch, and am thinking shredded carrot, bean sprouts, slivered water chestnuts might be nice too.
I love this dressing but it is strong. I’ll add a suggestion that if you are not eating the entire recipe at once, to keep the dressing separate and add some to each portion shortly before eating. I’m single and have discovered that if I add the dressing to a whole recipe at one time, the first serving is good but the leftovers become too strong. Also this particular recipe, besides being strong tasting, is rather oil heavy and adding the dressing to separate portions often allows me to save a few more calories than if I had added all the dressing at once. I added about one or two cloves of minced garlic to this for the roast broccoli recipe as well as a little Siracha on my portion and plan to experiment by adding a little five spice the next time I make it. Delicious flexible dressing which works well on many vegetables. I can see it becoming a staple in my kitchen!
This salad was easy to make and tastes so good and fresh. The dressing is perfect and the oranges make it delicious.
I would give this 10 stars if I could. I loved this, and so did my boyfriend and his golfing buddy. I doubled this – thankfully! We all had seconds.
I made this for dinner last night and while it was delicious, I felt that the mandarins didn’t jive with the rest of the salad. I took leftovers for lunch and cut the mandarins into smaller pieces, and it was better. I’m still not entirely convinced about the oranges being in there, but the smaller pieces made it so that the oranges weren’t overpowering. It was such a simple dinner to throw together, so I’ll probably make it again.
What’s the difference between mandarin oranges and tangerines? I’ve read their entries on the Wikipedia, but I would like some first-hand (first-mouth?) taste experience.
I’ve only ever had mandarin oranges from a can, and tangerines fresh, so I’m not sure how they compare when both are fresh. The canned mandarine oranges are much more sweet and mild than fresh tangerines, though.
I actually did some research on this to figure out what the difference is, and apparently, “mandarin” is a word that encompasses over 200 varieties of “loose-skinned,” smaller oranges. Clementines, tangerines, and satsumas are all varieties of “mandarin” oranges.
For this recipe I purchased a bag of Cuties since I’m not a huge fan of the canned flavor (some for the recipe and the rest for snacking!).
I love this! So far I’ve made it two days in a row and it’s excellent. Good caution about the dressing being strong – I agree to start with a little bit and then go from there. I’ll be making this again!
Just made this and it was incredible! The only thing I forgot was the ginger but the dressing still tasted delicious. I also used mango instead of the oranges per your suggestion. This is a perfect summer salad, thank you!
Awesome dressing! Had this salad for light dinner tonight and loved it. Mix of baby arugula, spinach and romaine, added some steamed green beans and roasted cashews. Perfection with the other ingredients.
I just made my first homemade salad dressing the other day! This simple sesame dressing looks soo good I can’t wait to try it!
This sounds good! I usually make a mandarin orange and cabbage “Chinese” slaw without chicken or ginger. This would be a great shake-up to that dinner!
Beth, I can’t review this recipe faithfully as I used it more as an inspirational jumping off point :-). My salad also turned out delicious, so I thought I’d share what I did in case it’s helpful for anyone.
– I used fresh mandarins as they’re in season in New Zealand and I had several on-hand
– I used some shredded chicken thighs I had slow-cooked the other day
– I used caramelised red onions as I had made up a batch yesterday and they were crying out to be used
– I had chopped peanuts on hand, so I used them instead of slivered almonds
– I added the juice of half a lime to the dressing, as I had half a lime that needed to be used
I can’t wait to eat this for lunch tomorrow! Thanks!