My Asian Ramen Salad recipe is so amazing with fresh napa cabbage, chicken, and toasted almonds and ramen noodles. Plus, it comes together in just a few minutes and uses only a few ingredients! If you’ve never had a napa cabbage salad before, you are in for a treat because you only think you don’t like cabbage. Napa cabbage will change your mind instantly! This easy recipe has been a staple of the Jones household for over 15 years. It is so popular with everyone who tries it that I once had a party at our place with over 50 people and served this salad with my homemade french bread. There wasn’t a scrap of food left and everyone left with a copy of this recipe because they wanted to make it at home.
What is the Difference Between Napa Cabbage and Regular Cabbage?
In taste and texture, Napa cabbage falls right between Romaine lettuce and standard cabbage. It’s leaves and stem are sweet and crisp like Romaine lettuce, but heartier than it. It can be cooked like regular cabbage but wilts quickly and shrinks quite a bit. It is delicious raw in a salad without the tough texture you will find with a regular cabbage. Napa cabbage comes in an oblong head that is often quite large, often weighing around 2 pounds. If you’ve never used it, you are about to find your new favorite green!
What to Serve with Chinese Chicken Salad
Just because it has an Asian flavor doesn’t mean you can’t serve a hot loaf of bread with this main dish salad. Fresh melon or pineapple would also make a delicious side dish, as well as some steamed cauliflower or broccoli.
How to Toast Ramen Noodles for Salads
While prepackaged ramen noodles are already fried, you can make them even crunchier and have better flavor by toasting them in a little bit of butter. This recipe has you crush up the ramen noodles into small pieces, combine them with almonds, then toast them both in a couple tablespoons of butter. Once they cool, it makes a delicious crunchy topping for the salad.
Asian Ramen Salad Video
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Asian Ramen Salad
This napa cabbage salad recipe is a favorite with our whole family! Yes, even our kids 🙂
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: Serves 8
Ingredients
Salad
- 1 large head of Napa cabbage, chopped
- 3 cups cooked chicken
- 8 green onions, chopped
- 3 ounces chicken flavored Ramen noodles, crushed
- 1 C slivered almonds
- 2 Tb butter
Dressing
- 1/3 C oil
- 1/3 C rice wine vinegar
- 1 1/2 Tb soy sauce
- 1 1/2 Tb sesame oil
- 6 Tb sugar
Instructions
1. Combine napa cabbage, chicken and green onions in a large bowl. In a small bowl, whisk together all the ingredients for the dressing.
2. In a small skillet, melt the butter then add the crushed ramen noodles and slivered almonds. Toast over medium heat until the noodles and almonds are golden brown, stirring frequently to keep them from burning. Add the chicken seasoning packet to the hot noodles and almonds once they are done browning.
3. Add the dressing and noodle/almond toppings to the salad and toss to combine. Serve immediately. Alternately, combine just enough salad, dressing and crunchy toppings for your meal and keep all items separate until the next serving.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 5 minutes
- Category: Salad
- Method: Fresh
- Cuisine: Asian
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/8
- Calories: 386
- Sugar: 13 g
- Sodium: 483 mg
- Fat: 24 g
- Saturated Fat: 4 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 10 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 25 g
- Fiber: 3 g
- Protein: 19 g
- Cholesterol: 37 mg
Keywords: main dish salads, asian salad, napa cabbage
Susan Lindquist says
Good crunch to this salad! Clever use of those ramen noodles …are ramens gluten free?
Carole says
There are gluten free ramen noodles out there, but normal ramen from your store are not gluten free
Kari Shifflett says
Yum, this is just like the Chinese Chicken Salad I grew up with-I L O V E it also!
Made From Pinterest says
Now you made me hungry!
Coty and Mariah says
Love using napa cabbage!
PeoplePerProject says
We paired our chicken with this fun and easy Asian Ramen Salad. We have been making in our family this ramen salad recipe for many many years! It is a classic that we always make during the grilling season since its light and fresh and has a delicious flavor.