One of our favorite go-to weekend restaurants is a place called Rascals here in LA. They’re known for their teriyaki chicken, but my favorite has always been their burgers and Chinese Chicken Salad!
Most everyone knows that you could make a burger low-carb/keto by ordering it protein style (no bun), but unfortunately, there is no way to get around the sugars in Chinese Chicken Salad.
So as I often have to with many of my favorite foods, I went to the drawing board and made my own low-carb/keto version of their Chinese Chicken Salad!
This one was actually really hard to replicate. A simple google search will let you know what kind of ingredients go inside, so that wasn’t hard, but nailing down the ratio to get that perfect addictive sweet, sour and peppery dressing was hard!
I probably used up nearly my entire bottle of vinegar trying to figure it all out! But at the end, I produced a dressing recipe that I was very happy with! I actually blind tasted this dressing with a popular bottled Chinese chicken salad dressing, ‘Feast from the East’ and ‘Rascals’ and I preferred this one!
Once you get all the ratio figured out, it’s really easy to make! You just melt down the Swerve/Monkfruit by boiling it with some Rice Vinegar at a 500/50 ratio. If you’re curious, the reason we use 50/50 is that it’s the magical scientific number needed to ensure the Swerve/Monkfruit doesn’t crystallize.
After that, we simply combine that with vegetable oil, Sesame Oil, salt and black pepper. And there you go! You just made yourself some low-carb/keto Chinese chicken salad dressing!
On a side note – you can hack this recipe by picking up prepacked Chinese Chicken Salad from a local market and just make LCA’s dressing. If you do this, make sure you donate the wontons/rice crackers inside to someone else.
The ingredients you need to enjoy this dish are Rice Vinegar, Sesame Oil, Swerve/Monkfruit, all of which can be purchased on Amazon or at local Asian supermarket (aside from Swerve/Monkfruit).
Note – for the Rice Vinegar, make sure to use the non-sugar added version, which usually has a green cap (orange is sugar added).
Now, let’s get started!
Prepping Time 10M
Cook Time 10M
Total Time 20M
Net Carb/Serving ~1g
Servings 1
Ingredients
Salad
- 4-5 Leaves of Iceberg Lettuce
- 1 Chicken Thigh
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 tbsp Sliced/Crushed Almonds or Roasted Macadamia Nuts (optional)
Dressing
- 2 tbsp Rice Vinegar
- 2 tbsp Swerve/Monkfruit
- 1 tbsp Sesame Oil
- 1/2 tbsp Vegetable Oil
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 1/4 tsp Black Pepper
Directions
1) Gather all the ingredients.
2) Add enough water to boil chicken thigh in a stove top pan. Once water is boiling, add 1/2 tsp of salt and chicken thigh into stove top pan. Reduce heat to medium, cover the pot 7/8 of the way to allow for evaporation, and cook for 10 minutes.
3) In the meantime, prepare, wash, dry lettuce leaves as needed. Cut into 1/2 inch width bite sizes and place into a bowl.
4) Optional – if you have pre-sliced or pre-crushed almonds, you can skip this step. If you have whole almonds, put almonds in a food processor and pulse until almonds are in smaller pieces (or you can just break them up with kitchen mallet). Set aside.
5) In a small Teflon fry pan, add Swerve/Monkfruit and Rice Vinegar and bring to boil. Once boiling, remove from heat and set to cool. Once cooled, add to mixing bowl.
6) Add Sesame Oil, vegetable oil, salt and black pepper into mixing bottle or a mixing bowl. Shake/mix well and set aside.
7) Once 10 minutes has passed, pull chicken from pot and place onto a cutting board. With a knife and tongs, gently sweep the knife left to right with the knife pointing with the grain of the meat. The chicken should pull apart and form shreds.
8) Combine shredded chicken, sliced/crushed almonds, dressing (to taste) into lettuce bowl and toss well. Note – make sure you vigorously shake dressing prior to serving as settling will occur.
Hope you enjoy your low-carb/keto Chinese Chicken Salad!
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Chinese Chicken Salad with Dressing
Ingredients
Salad
- 4-5 Leaves Iceberg Lettuce
- 1 Piece Chicken Thigh
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 tbsp Sliced/Crushed Almonds or Macadamia Nuts
Dressing
- 2 tbsp Rice Vinegar
- 2 tbsp Swerve or Monkfruit
- 1 tbsp Sesame Oil
- 1/2 tbsp Vegetable Oil
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 1/4 tsp Black Pepper
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients.
- Add enough water to boil chicken thigh in a stove top pan. Once water is boiling, add 1/2 tsp of salt and chicken thigh into stove top pan. Reduce heat to medium, cover the pot 7/8 of the way to allow for evaporation, and cook for 10 minutes.
- In the meantime, prepare, wash, dry lettuce leaves as needed. Cut into 1/2 inch width bite sizes and place into a bowl.
- Optional - if you have pre-sliced or pre-crushed almonds, you can skip this step. If you have whole almonds, put almonds in a food processor and pulse until almonds are in smaller pieces (or you can just break them up with kitchen mallet). Set aside.
- In a small Teflon fry pan, add Swerve/Monkfruit and Rice Vinegar and bring to boil. Once boiling, remove from heat and set to cool. Once cooled, add to mixing bowl.
- Add Sesame Oil, vegetable oil, salt and black pepper into mixing bottle or a mixing bowl. Shake/mix well and set aside.
- Once 10 minutes has passed, pull chicken from pot and place onto a cutting board. With a knife and tongs, gently sweep the knife left to right with the knife pointing with the grain of the meat. The chicken should pull apart and form shreds.
- Combine shredded chicken, sliced/crushed almonds, dressing (to taste) into lettuce bowl and toss well. Note - make sure you vigorously shake dressing prior to serving as settling will occur.
Video
Nutrition
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