Soba Chicken Noodle Salad with Ginger Peanut Dressing
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This Asian-inspired noodle salad is everything you want a summertime meal to be: flavorful, light, and totally satisfying.
Photo by Johnny Miller (Clarkson Potter, 2021)
Years ago, I wrote a salad column for the popular food site, Serious Eats. Among my contributions, the most popular was this Asian-inspired noodle salad. It marries chicken and veggies with a punchy dressing flavored with soy sauce, ginger, garlic, and peanut butter. The salad is perfect summer fare: full of fresh flavors, light on the palate, and totally satisfying. For the chicken, I’ve provided cooking instructions, but if you’re looking for a shortcut, this recipe is perfect for using up leftover chicken or a store-bought rotisserie. If you opt for the latter, you’ll need 2 cups of cooked, shredded chicken.
A heads-up about the dressing: it might seem a bit sharp and salty on its own, but that’s intentional. The noodles absorb a lot of flavor, so it’s important to over-season the dressing slightly. While you can prepare the dressing ahead of time, I’d suggest cooking and tossing the noodles just before serving to keep them from becoming soggy.
Soba noodles, similar in appearance to spaghetti, are made from buckwheat and hail from Japan (indeed, “soba” translates to “buckwheat” in Japanese). They are available at Asian markets and most grocery stores. However, if you can’t find them, spaghetti makes an excellent substitute.
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Soba Chicken Noodle Salad with Ginger Peanut Dressing
This Asian-inspired noodle salad is everything you want a summertime meal to be: flavorful, light, and totally satisfying.
Ingredients
For the Chicken
- 2 bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts (see note)
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the Salad
- 10 ounces soba noodles (or spaghetti)
- 1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced into bite-sized pieces
- 4 scallions, white and green parts, thinly sliced
- ½ cup chopped salted peanuts
- ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro
- 1 tablespoon sesame seeds
For the Dressing
- 6 tablespoons soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons seasoned rice wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons peanut oil
- 1 tablespoon Asian/toasted sesame oil
- 1½ tablespoons creamy peanut butter
- 2 small garlic cloves, roughly chopped
- 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger (see note)
- 1 tablespoon sugar
Instructions
- Cook the chicken: Preheat the oven to 350°F and set a rack in the middle position. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Place the chicken breasts on the prepared pan. Rub the skin with the vegetable oil and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Roast for 35 to 40 minutes, until the chicken is just cooked. Set aside until cool enough to handle.
- Begin the salad: Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the noodles according to the package instructions, stirring occasionally so they don't stick. Drain and rinse well under cold water.
- Make the dressing: Meanwhile, in a small food processor or blender, combine the soy sauce, vinegar, peanut oil, sesame oil, peanut butter, garlic, ginger, and sugar; blend until smooth.
- Finish the salad: Remove the skin from the chicken breasts and shred the meat into bite-sized pieces. In a large bowl, toss the shredded chicken with the noodles, bell pepper, scallions, peanuts, cilantro, sesame seeds, and dressing. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Serve immediately.
- Note: If you'd like to use leftover chicken or a store-bought rotisserie, you'll need 2 cups of cooked, shredded meat.
- Note: Check out easy guidance on how to peel, grate, and chop fresh ginger here.
Nutrition Information
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- Per serving (4 servings)
- Calories: 708
- Fat: 36g
- Saturated fat: 6g
- Carbohydrates: 67g
- Sugar: 7g
- Fiber: 3g
- Protein: 37g
- Sodium: 2099mg
- Cholesterol: 56mg
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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I would enjoy serving this to my card club for lunch. I saw your suggestion to serve coconut shrimp as a side, but that would not be one of my favorites. Serving a salad as a side doesn’t seem right. Maybe some steamed dumplings? What about a dessert? Thanks in advance. I’m new to your website and love it!
Hi Candy, I think steamed dumplings would work nicely in terms of the Asian theme, but that’s also a lot of pasta (if you count the outside of the dumplings as pasta). A dessert may be a better way to go. (Glad to hear you’re enjoying the blog!)
Also, low-sodium soy sauce is a good choice. That will help the dressing not be too salty for those who are concerned.
This was so delicious! I made it with spaghetti and added shredded carrot, blanched broccoli florets, and edamame. (always trying to squeeze in extra veggies) The dressing is so flavorful and balanced. This recipe has a lot of potential for a variety of veggies and protein. My husband loved it. We ate it warm last night and cold for lunch today. Also shared the leftovers with my daughter and her husband. Everyone gave it 5 stars and more! Thanks, Jenn, another winner as always!
Hi Jenn
I can’t find rice wine vinegar, but I can find rice vinegar. Is it the same product? My internet search says it is. Is that correct??
Thanks!
Yes, that’s correct – hope you enjoy!
Thank you for that clarification! I also could not find rice “wine” vinegar!
I made this salad today to take to a Labor Day picnic and made a couple minor changes. The dressing was a little too salty and strong for my taste so I added some grapeseed oil to tone it down a bit. I also sweetened it a little more with some honey. We love ginger so added extra minced ginger to the salad and added more veggies…shaved carrots and sliced snap peas.
This is a winner in our house. I add chopped cucumber and shredded carrots to squeeze in an extra serving of veggies
Hi Jenn! I really want to make this recipe but I’ve been unable to come across peanut oil (stores are pretty much wiped out around here) and I just finished what I had. What can I use instead of the peanut oil?
Thank you!!
Hi Cristie, I think you could get away with using vegetable oil instead. Hope you enjoy!
Hi Jenn
I’m making this recipe (Sounds delicious) but my husband does not like cilantro. What would you replace it with or should I simply omit it? Thank you.
Hi Anita, It’s perfectly fine to just omit it. Enjoy!
I’m a horrible cook and nothing really works out for me. I followed this step by step and it worked out!!! I’m super happy that I didn’t have another disaster in my kitchen. Will make this again.
I made a few changes based on what I had in my kitchen. I used shredded carrots and red cabbage in place of the red pepper. I didn’t have soba noodles (or even spaghetti!?), so I used the rice ramen noodles sold at Costco (4 “cakes”). My whole family enjoyed this, including my 3 and 4 year old. This is definitely a great warm-weather dinner idea!
Made it exactly as written—it was great! A real keeper! I like the suggestion from the comments of adding edamame—I will do that next time.