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This Applebee’s Oriental Chicken Salad Copycat tastes just like the popular restaurant dish! Crisp veggies, chow mein, and tender chicken in that creamy signature dressing. YUM!
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This Applebee’s Oriental Chicken Salad Copycat tastes exactly like my favorite dish on the menu. Chock full of delicious flavors and textures, this salad is my go to anytime I visit Applebee’s. My husband loves this salad too, he specifically requested it for the menu this week. This recipe is spot on, dressing and all! You’ll love the crisp greens and veggies, the tender chicken and that creamy, sweet and tangy honey mustard dressing. Do yourself a favor and cook at home, stay in and enjoy your favorite restaurant salad without ever leaving the house!
Ingredients in this Applebee’s Copycat Salad
For the three components of this Applebee’s salad, you’ll need to make the dressing, the chicken strips and assemble the salad. While there’s a lot of ingredients, every bite is completely worth the effort!
For the Dressing:
- Mayonnaise – I like to use half a cup of Hellman’s or Best Foods mayo.
- Honey – start with six tablespoons and add more if you want it a bit sweeter.
- Rice vinegar – three tablespoons or so. You can also use rice wine vinegar for an extra depth of sweetness.
- Dijon mustard – this mustard adds a tangy kick to the dressing. It really can’t be duplicated!
- Toasted sesame oil – a little goes a long way with this ingredients, so you’ll only need about half a teaspoon
- Salt – a quarter teaspoon or to taste
Fried Chicken Strips:
- Chicken breasts – start with three boneless skinless chicken breasts and cut into bite size pieces.
- Egg – One whole egg for dipping
- Buttermilk – if you don’t have any on hand, you can make your own by combining regular milk with a tablespoon white vinegar and enough milk to make one cup.
- All-Purpose Flour
- Cornflake crumbs – this will give the chicken pieces that restaurant quality crunchy outer crust that is so good!
- Panko bread crumbs – you can find these next to the regular breadcrumbs at the grocery store.
- Salt – about two teaspoons
- Black pepper
- Vegetable oil – you’ll need about two cups of oil for frying
For the Salad:
- Romaine lettuce – about six cups chopped
- Red cabbage – this is optional, but adds such a delicious crunch and colorful pop to the salad.
- Carrots – julienned or shredded
- Sliced almonds – you can toast the almonds for a few minutes on a cookie sheet in the oven for a deeper flavor.
- Chow mien rice noodles – find these in the Asian foods aisle in your grocery store.
- Green onion – optional
Tips for Crispy Chicken
- To get that flavorful, crispy chicken that tops the Oriental chicken salad, start with thin strips of boneless chicken. I sometimes get the chicken tenders already prepared or I cut chicken breasts into about four or five pieces. Either way works great!
- Next, combine a healthy portion of corn flake crumbs and Panko breadcrumbs with some flour. These will give your chicken tenders that golden crispy crust you love.
- Dip the chicken into a milk and egg mixture (see recipe card below) then immediately roll them into the breadcrumb mixture.
- Make sure the oil in your frying pan is super hot! Fry the strips a few at a time for about six to seven minutes until they’re golden brown.
- Let the chicken strips rest on a paper towel to soak up excess oil.
- If the chicken isn’t completely cooked, you can pop the strips into a 350 degree oven for about five minutes until they’re cooked through.
Suggestions to Lighten Up this Recipe
- If you are wanting to go a little on the lighter side, try marinating the chicken in a sesame ginger marinade (the bottled kind you can get at the store), then grill and slice it over the salad. Drizzle extra dressing over the top
- You can also sub the mayo in the dressing for a light mayo or Greek yogurt. The light version is really good too!
Frequently Asked Questions about Applebee’s Oriental Chicken Salad
While you can find bottled dressing at the store, this fresh dressing is made with rice wine vinegar, mayo, Dijon mustard, honey and sesame oil. It tastes EXACTLY like the restaurant’s dressing.
Despite its name, Chinese chicken salad is really an American dish. It’s believed to have been invented in the 1930s in the U.S. but made famous by Wolfgang Puck during the Asian fusion cuisine trend.
You can absolutely substitute grilled chicken instead of the breaded chicken for this salad. It really depends on your taste preference.
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How to Make Applebee’s Oriental Chicken Salad
Applebee’s Oriental Chicken Salad Copycat
Video
Ingredients
Dressing
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- 6 tablespoons honey
- 3 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- ½ teaspoon toasted sesame oil
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Chicken Strips
- 2 cups vegetable oil, for frying
- 1 egg
- ¾ cup buttermilk
- ¾ cup flour
- ½ cup cornflake crumbs
- ½ cup panko bread crumbs
- 2 teaspoons salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
Salad
- 6 cups chopped romaine lettuce
- 1 cup chopped red cabbage optional
- ¾ cup julienned or shredded carrot
- ½ cup sliced almonds
- 1 cup chow mein rice noodles
Instructions
Dressing
- Thoroughly mix dressing ingredients. Chill until ready to serve.
Chicken Strips
- Fill a deep frying pan with about 2 inches of oil. Heat to 350 degrees F. Prepare a rack or plate with a paper towel for draining fried chicken. Set aside. Whisk egg and buttermilk together in a small bowl. Set aside.
- Use a mallet or rolling pin to pound each chicken breast evenly to about a 1-inch thickness. This is easiest if you place each chicken breast between two sheets of waxed paper or plastic wrap before flattening. Slice each chicken breast lengthwise into 4 or 5 strips.
- Dredge each chicken strip in egg mixture, then dry crumb mixture. Place each strip in heated oil and fry for 6-7 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to rack or prepared plate.
- Remove to rack or prepared plate.
Salad
- Prepare salad by tossing romaine with red cabbage and carrots. Evenly distribute salad to 6 dinner plates.
- Slice the chicken strips diagonally into thirds, or leave them in strips. Top each salad with hot chicken strips.
- Garnish each salad with almonds and chow mein noodles. Serve with dressing on the side.
Notes
Recipe Tips
- To get that flavorful, crispy chicken that tops the Oriental chicken salad, start with thin strips of boneless chicken. I sometimes get the chicken tenders already prepared or I cut chicken breasts into about four or five pieces. Either way works great!
- Next, combine a healthy portion of cornflake crumbs and Panko breadcrumbs with some flour. These will give your chicken tenders that golden crispy crust you love.
- Dip the chicken into a milk and egg mixture (see recipe card below) then immediately roll them into the breadcrumb mixture.
- Make sure the oil in your frying pan is super hot! Fry the strips a few at a time for about six to seven minutes until they’re golden brown.
- Let the chicken strips rest on a paper towel to soak up excess oil.
This was always a favorite of mine to order at the restaurant. This version was just as good as I remembered the original to be!
So good! You really got this recipe perfect.
Hello. I’ve made this recipe many times and I have to say it’s the BEST salad EVER! Thanks for sharing all of your delicious recipes. Do you have other awesome salad recipes as good as this one that you’d recommend?
Thank you so much! We have lots of tasty salads… one of my favorites is the BBQ salad: /bbq-chicken-salad-with-creamy-bbq-dressing.html
Just wanted to say thanks for your recipes. I travel to California and Las Vegas nearly every year and the one thing I miss when I get back home in Australia is the delicious food you can get in the U S A.you have the best Mexican food and I wish they would open up a Pandas store or Chilis restaurant in Australia.they would make a fortune! For now I can use your recipes to get me by. Thanks again . I love your Country and can’t wait till I get back there.
Gail– thank you so much! We are so glad you like our recipes. Hopefully we have provided some recipes for you to make in Australia that taste like the restaurant dishes here! I would love to visit Australia one day– I hear is is breathtaking!
Nice recipe. Thanks so much.
Yum! This is my favorite thing to get at Applebee’s too! Can’t wait to try it at home!