Gluten Free Crunchy Chicken Peanut Salad
Updated May 20, 2020, Published Mar 10, 2012
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I love crispy, crunchy salads – something about eating lots of crispy salad makes me feel so virtuous (and as if I deserve dessert afterwards!). I will often order a big main dish salad at restaurants for dinner. I mean after all, salad is gluten-free, right? Well, yes and sometimes NO.
I unthinkingly ordered a crunchy peanut salad at a restaurant not too long ago without checking if it was gluten-free. I know, I know – always, always check! But I didn’t and had to pay the consequences afterward.
I loved the salad but hated the way I felt 2 hours later (and all through the night, and the next day…) so I decided to make my own version of that salad as a gluten-free recipe at home where I could be certain it was indeed gluten-free.
This Gluten Free Crunchy Chicken Peanut Salad recipe is packed full of crisp veggies and for even more crunch, some fried mung bean vermicelli noodles. You can get the mung bean vermicelli noodles at an Asian market or in the ethnic section of the grocery store; they are sometimes called cellophane or glass noodles. They come in various thicknesses and for this recipe I used really thin ones (vermicelli). They are basically a dried noodle made from starch and water and can be reconstituted and used in soups, stir fries and spring rolls. When they are fried briefly in hot oil they puff up dramatically and add amazing crunch and texture plus a little touch of the exotic to salads. Don’t be afraid of frying the noodles, it is easy to do, takes just a few seconds and will make people think you are some fancy schmancy chef.
I added some protein to the salad by shredding up some rotisserie chicken but you can use tofu instead or just leave it out altogether if you want a vegetarian meal. For the dressing I used a NEW gluten-free Asian dressing from San-J (the people who bring you gluten free soy sauce) Tamari Peanut Asian Dressing.
This recipe makes a ton of salad – it serves at least 6 as a main dish and is a really great pot luck dish. Just make it up to the point of adding the fried noodles, peanuts and dressing, place in a bowl topped with some damp paper towels, cover with plastic wrap, refrigerate it and it will stay crunchy for a day or two. Take the fried noodles, peanuts and dressing separately and toss just before serving.
And do you want to know what else? I made this huge bowl of goodness for just a bit more than it cost me to get a very similar salad for one at the restaurant – and I didn’t get gluten poisoned!
Gluten Free Crunchy Chicken Peanut Salad
Ingredients
- 1 head Napa cabbage, , shredded
- 1 small head red cabbage, , quartered, cored and thinly sliced
- 4 cups cooked chicken, , shredded
- 2 bunches green onions, , thinly sliced on the diagonal
- 1 English, (hothouse) cucumber, julienned
- 2 cups shredded carrots
- 4 ounces snow peas, , thinly sliced
- 8 ounces bean sprouts
- 1 bunch cilantro, , chopped
- 4 ounces mung bean vermicelli noodles
- Cooking oil
- 1½ cups San-J Tamari Peanut Asian
Dressing
- 2 cups dry roasted, salted peanuts
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Combine the Napa cabbage, red cabbage, shredded chicken, green onions, cucumbers, carrots, snow peas, bean sprouts and cilantro in a very large mixing bowl.
- Using your hands, gently pull the mung bean vermicelli noodles apart into smaller portions. Place some paper towels on 2 dinner plates. In a small skillet add an inch of cooking oil (the smaller the skillet, the less oil you need) and heat the oil until it ripples but does not smoke. Fry one small handful of noodles at a time until they puff up, about 5 seconds, flip over with tongs and fry the other side for a second or two. Remove from oil with tongs, place on the prepared plate and sprinkle with a little salt. Repeat until all the noodles are fried.
- Add the dressing to the vegetable/chicken mixture and toss well to coat. Crumble the fried mung bean vermicelli noodles into the salad; add the peanuts, season with about 1 teaspoon of salt and ½ teaspoon of pepper, toss again and serve.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Oooh, my family could demolish that in seconds flat! It looks wonderful and I would feel very virtuous indeed as well :) Yummo!
This looks just like the salad I used to order at California Pizza Kitchen – so excited to make this at home!!! Thank you.
2 cups of shredded carrots is listed twice and mentioned twice in the recipe. Is this just an oversight? I can’t wait to try this simple recipe. It sounds and looks delicious!
Hi Lori, just a mistake! Would you like a job asmy proof reader :) You just need 2 cups of carrots, can’t fix the post now as I am traveling but will do it soon. Thank you so much for bringing this to my attention!
I made this tonight to go with some fish. I reduced the chicken to 1 cup (bcz we had a main dish), shredded or sliced everything in my food processor (yeah!), used zucchini in stead of cuke, left out several things (esp. the cilantro – hate it). I only had peanut satay dressing (8 oz) so I added some soy sauce and almond butter. Also threw in some baby spinach. It turned out great! Even my 13 yo liked it. One recommendation: I cooked up way too much mung bean, so I used only some of it and I would say to not put it in until right before serving. Otherwise it would get too mushy.
Thanks so much for the feedback Amy – I totally agree about the mung bean noodles being added right before serving.
Do you boil the noodles first of just fry them?
No, don’t boil them – just fry them.