My viral crispy rice salads takes on a sweet and salty kick with this Teriyaki Chicken Crispy Rice Salad. It comes together with a simple rotisserie chicken tossed in a creamy teriyaki sauce and added to a bed of crisp Persian cucumbers, crunchy red cabbage, and a perfect crispy rice. And, it’s all finished off with a creamy sesame ginger dressing that you’re sure to love.
Of all of the crispy rice salads that I’ve shared recently, I’ve yet to share a chicken one. Can you believe it? Truly, there is nothing I love more than a delicious salad that’s loaded with tender, juicy chicken. It’s what I eat for lunch most days of the week, and, ever since I created my OG Crispy Rice Salad with Lemon Tahini Dressing (which has over 11 million views on Instagram and counting!) I’ve been adding chicken breast to it for some extra protein, and it has truly made for the perfect meal. So, when I was dreaming up my next crispy rice salad recipe, I knew that it needed to be a chicken-based one. And, lo and behold, this Teriyaki Chicken Crispy Rice Salad was born!
If you think teriyaki chicken is hard to make, think again. No, this isn’t your traditional grilled teriyaki chicken recipe. But, it does have all of the same flavors and textures of teriyaki chicken that you know and love… just made easier! The chicken in this salad comes together with just a simple pre-made rotisserie chicken that is shredded and tossed in a delicious, salty teriyaki sauce. I use a bottled sauce to make this easy, but if you want to make your own, see my instructions below!
What You Need to Make This Viral Crispy Rice Salad
- Rice: Of course, it wouldn’t be a crispy rice salad without the rice! I like using jasmine rice for this recipe, but any type of rice will work well.
- Sesame Oil: A touch of sesame oil adds a toasty, nutty flavor to the rice that is truly unbeatable.
- Teriyaki Sauce: Of course, it wouldn’t be a teriyaki chicken salad without the teriyaki sauce! You can use a pre-made teriyaki sauce or use my instructions below to make your own!
- Rotisserie Chicken: I like to keep my recipes as easy to throw together as possible, which is why I love using a rotisserie chicken to make things simple.
- Persian Cucumbers: Persian cucumbers are small and crunchy, making them perfect for this salad. You can also opt to use a larger English cucumber, if you prefer – just be sure to slice it thin!
- Red Cabbage: Red cabbage is perfectly crisp and tastes delicious alongside the crunchy cucumbers.
- Cilantro: I love adding in lots of cilantro for that delicious, herby flavor.
- Peanuts: Crunchy, salted peanuts add the perfect crunch to this salad!
- Red Bell Pepper: Red bell peppers are full of fiber and antioxidants, making them a delicious addition to this salad.
- Green Onion: Green onions are essential to all of my crispy rice salad recipes, and this one is no exception!
- Olive Oil: Olive oil is full of healthy fats and makes for the perfect base for this dressing.
- Soy Sauce or Coconut Aminos: If you’re gluten-sensitive, use coconut aminos. If not, you can use traditional soy sauce. Both work just as well!
- Rice Vinegar: A touch of rice vinegar adds the perfect balance of flavor to the dressing.
- Maple Syrup: Maple syrup adds just the right amount of sweetness to this dressing – don’t skip this!
- Cashew Butter: Cashew butter makes the dressing thick and creamy, while adding a more mild flavor than peanut butter.
- Garlic: I always recommend using fresh garlic, whenever possible. It adds the best flavor to this dressing!
- Ginger: I recommend using fresh ginger in this recipe for the sharpest ginger flavor.
How to Make This Crispy Teriyaki Chicken Salad
To make this salad, start by preparing the crispy rice. Preheat your oven to 400 F. Next, line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set it aside.
Cook the rice according to your preferred method and allow it to cool fully. Then, add it to the baking sheet. Toss the cooled rice with the sesame oil and teriyaki sauce. Then, transfer the baking sheet to the oven and bake the rice for 30-40 minutes, or until it’s nice and crispy. Toss it halfway through, to ensure that it cooks evenly.
While the rice is in the oven, prepare the chicken. Remove the bones from the rotisserie chicken and shred it into small pieces. Toss the shredded chicken with the teriyaki sauce, then set it aside. Toss the shredded chicken with the teriyaki sauce, then set it aside. Once the crispy rice is done, remove it from the oven and set it aside.
Next, prepare the salad. Wash and chop the Persian cucumbers, red cabbage, cilantro, green onions, bell pepper, and salted peanuts, and add them to a large bowl.Then, add in the teriyaki chicken and the crispy rice to the bowl with the salad.
Finally, prepare the dressing by adding all of the dressing ingredients (the olive oil, toasted sesame oil, soy sauce, rice vinegar, maple syrup, cashew butter, garlic, and fresh ginger) to a blender and blend until smooth and creamy. Pour the dressing on top of the salad, then toss to fully combine. Once it’s done, serve and enjoy! Store any leftovers in an airtight container, in the fridge, for up to three days.
How to Make Your Own Teriyaki Sauce
While you can easily use a pre-made teriyaki sauce to keep this recipe simple, you can also make your own! This simple recipe for a homemade teriyaki sauce can be prepped ahead and stored in your fridge to toss over your favorite chicken or veggies, or to use whenever you make this recipe (because I know you’re going to want to make it often!)
To make the teriyaki sauce, you’ll need…
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 tablespoon mirin (optional, but adds a sweeter flavor)
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon grated ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
To make the sauce, add all of the ingredients to a small saucepan, on the stove, over medium heat. Whisk them together until they’re fully combined, then allow the sauce to simmer for 5-10 minutes until it thickens. Once it’s done, serve and enjoy – that’s it!
If you make this recipe, please be sure to leave a review and rating below! To see more recipes and behind the scenes, follow along on Instagram, TikTok, and Youtube! I’m also now on Pinterest, so stop by and take a look at what’s new.
** Photography by Tanya Pilgrim
Ingredients
For the Crispy Rice:
- 2 Cups Cooked Rice, cooled – I use jasmine rice, but any rice should work well
- 1 Tablespoon Sesame Oil
- 2 Tablespoons Teriyaki Sauce or Marinade
For the Chicken:
- 1 Rotisserie Chicken
- ¼ Cup Teriyaki Sauce or Marinade
For the Salad:
- 5 Persian Cucumbers, thinly sliced – you can also substitute one large English cucumber
- ½ Cup Red Cabbage, finely sliced
- ½ Cup Cilantro, chopped
- ½ Cup Salted Peanuts, chopped
- 1 Red Bell Pepper, diced small
- 1 Bunch Green Onions, finely chopped
For the Creamy Sesame Ginger Dressing:
- ¼ Cup Olive Oil
- 3 Tablespoons Toasted Sesame Oil
- 3 Tablespoons Soy Sauce or Coconut Aminos
- 3 Tablespoons Rice Vinegar
- 2 Tablespoons Maple Syrup
- 2 Tablespoons Cashew Butter
- 2 Cloves Garlic, mashed
- 1 Tablespoon Fresh Ginger, minced
Instructions
- To make this salad, start by preparing the crispy rice. Preheat your oven to 400 F.
- Next, line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set it aside.
- Cook the rice according to your preferred method and allow it to cool fully. Then, add it to the baking sheet.
- Toss the cooled rice with the sesame oil and teriyaki sauce.
- Then, transfer the baking sheet to the oven and bake the rice for 30-40 minutes, or until it's nice and crispy. Toss it halfway through, to ensure that it cooks evenly.
- While the rice is in the oven, prepare the chicken. Remove the bones from the rotisserie chicken and shred it into small pieces.
- Toss the shredded chicken with the teriyaki sauce, then set it aside.
- Once the crispy rice is done, remove it from the oven and set it aside.
- Next, prepare the salad. Wash and chop the Persian cucumbers, red cabbage, cilantro, green onions, bell pepper, and salted peanuts, and add them to a large bowl.
- Then, add in the teriyaki chicken and the crispy rice to the bowl with the salad.
- Finally, prepare the dressing by adding all of the dressing ingredients (the olive oil, toasted sesame oil, soy sauce, rice vinegar, maple syrup, cashew butter, garlic, and fresh ginger) to a blender and blend until smooth and creamy.
- Pour the dressing on top of the salad, then toss to fully combine.
- Once it's done, serve and enjoy! Store any leftovers in an airtight container, in the fridge, for up to three days.
Rate & review
SELECT A RATING and tell me what you think!
What others are saying
My husband said this tasted like something you could order at a nice restaurant! Which is a huge compliment coming from him.
I love that it’s also packed with nutrients.
To make it lower calorie for myself I omitted the crispy rice (my husbands fav part haha!) and watered down the dressing.
Sooo yummy. I will definitely make it again!
Wow! I am so happy to hear that, Ali! Thank you so much for making this recipe for you and your husband. It means the world to me!
Looks amazing! Is nutrition info serving since the entire salad? Thanks!
Loved all the flavors. However, the rice was waaaay too hard. It seemed like we were eating raw uncooked rice. Maybe I need to try it with just regular rice.
I’m sorry to hear that, Donna! You may need to cook it for less time, based on your unique oven!
So I wanted to love this salad. I love Asian flavors, I love salmon, I love rice. I was excited about the crispy rice but it was honestly what made me give this salad a 3 stars. The crispy rice ruined it for me because it kept getting stuck in my teeth and made it hard to chew. So hard to chew, my jaw literally hurt by the time I finished my salad. If anything I would try this again with normally cooked rice just as a simple rice bowl. The dressing was okay but nothing special. Kind of disappointed!
I’m sorry to hear that, Ashley! I definitely recommend cooking the rice for a shorter amount of time, next time.
Made this beaut for dinner for the first time and man, what a delight!! Everybody loved it ! Im so glad I found you!!! ( cant tag you on Social media cause im not on it…)
I am so happy you loved it, Cynthia! Thank you for your review!
My family loved this!
Yay! Thank you, Jacqueline!
So so delicious! I boiled and shredded chicken because I was worried I’d miss the bones from a rotisserie chicken so the recipe took awhile but it was well worth the wait! I LOVED this meal! So tasty and flavorful and packed with veggies and protein.
I am so happy you enjoyed it, Caitlin! Thank you for your review!
I made this yesterday for my son. The rice did not come out the way I thought it should, so I just left it out. I also sous vide chicken breast (which was easy and came out tender), seasoned, and shredded it. I did not mix the dressing with the salad ingredients, because I didn’t want it to get weird throughout the week. My son ate it this evening for supper and said it was a keeper!!! It made the list; therefore, I’ll be making it again!! Thank you for the recipe!
Made this one again only with steak! Yummy! Next time i’ll do it with salmon. 🥰👍
I love this salad! I used almond butter that I had on hand and the dressing was wonderful. In fact, I’ll use this dressing recipe on other dishes. Thank you for sharing!
That sounds wonderful, LJ! Thank you so much for your review!
This is amazing 😍! On dressing, I was out of tahini and no cashew almond butter, so I used mayo and dressing was the best creamy nutty. And I also cut down on the cuc, I used half of the large one. The crispy rice was genius ❤️❤️ thanks for sharing
I am so happy that you enjoyed this recipe, Sue! Thank you so much for making this recipe and for your review!
Thanks for this recipe, it’s really yummy! This is the second of your crispy rice salads I have made and after reading many of the other comments, I wanted to chime in and say that you really have to figure out the right cook time for the rice based on your own oven 🙂 The first time I made it, I went by the time in the recipe, which ended up with rice that was pretty firm, but not exactly crispy. This time, I went more based off the color you get in your crispy rice so it ended up taking almost 50 minutes in my oven. But that was the sweet spot because the rice was very crispy without being too hard to chew! My only question would be about storing the crispy rice to preserve the texture. Is there a good way you’ve found to do that or do you crisp your rice every time you eat your leftovers?
Hi Kait, thank you so much for your support and helpful feedback on these Crispy Rice Salad recipes! I recommend storing the crispy rice in a separate, airtight container, in order to ensure that it doesn’t get soggy.