I love the spicy Panera Thai chicken salad (from Panera Bread restaurant), so I decided to try to replicate a copycat version at home. Let me tell you, I think it's fabulous!
A great dinner salad that's full of flavors. Lettuce, chicken, bell pepper, edamame, carrots, cilantro, slivered almonds, and a wonderful peanut dressing with a little bit of spice.
Takes only about 30 minutes from start to finish, and you have a hearty, healthy, delicious meal your whole family will love!
What You'll Need
1 Tablespoon oil
½ cup carrots, chopped
red bell pepper, chopped
½ cup edamame (I used frozen - no need to thaw)
1 large chicken breast (about 1-½ cups sliced or chopped)
Romaine lettuce, chopped
slivered almonds
fresh cilantro
salt and black pepper
red pepper flakes
For the Dressing
¼ cup peanut butter
1 Tablespoon soy sauce (I used low sodium)
1 Tablespoon lime juice
2 Tablespoons rice vinegar
2 Tablespoons sesame oil
(See recipe card below for ingredient quantities and printable instructions)
How to Make Panera Thai Chicken Salad
Preheat a heavy skillet on medium heat on the stove top. Add oil, chicken, salt, and black pepper and cook until juices run clear and meat is done.
While the chicken is cooking, prepare your carrots, bell pepper, lettuce, and cilantro.
When chicken is done, add carrots, bell pepper, and edamame and cook for 10 minutes (stirring often).
While cooking, prepare the dressing by adding all the dressing ingredients to a small bowl and mixing with a whisk.
In a large bowl add chopped lettuce, almonds, and cilantro and combine.
Once chicken and vegetables are done, remove from heat and let cool for 5-10 minutes before adding to salad.
Add chicken and vegetables to lettuce mixture and combine.
Serve in separate bowls and add dressing in desired quantity.
You may not need all the dressing, but it keeps well in the refrigerator and goes well on any type of salad.
Tips
You can use any color of bell pepper, but the red gives the salad nice color variation since there's already green and orange with the lettuce and carrots.
For the edamame, there's no need to thaw them. They thaw quickly when cooking and don't need much cook time to be perfect in the salad.
For the lettuce, you can use other lettuce besides Romaine. Leaf or head lettuce should work just fine, but Romaine is sturdy and flavorful and duplicates the original recipe.
Leaf lettuce may get wilty faster, and head lettuce won't be as flavorful. But use what you have, and it should turn out delicious.
I hope you love this Panera Bread spicy Thai salad as much as we do! Please let me know what you think in the comments below!
Great served with your choice of bread. Try my quick & easy Cheese Toast recipe.
Other salads you may love:
Mediterranean Cucumber Salad with creamy lemon dressing
Broccoli Bacon Salad (easy & tasty)
Carrot Raisin Salad (quick & delicious)
Simple Potato Salad (with Bacon)
Other Chicken Meals to Enjoy:
Slow Cooked Chicken and Corn Soup
Chicken Divan Crock Pot Recipe
Fruited Chicken Salad with Grapes & Cashews
Garlic Butter Chicken Pasta (browned & full of flavor)
📋 Recipe
Panera Thai Chicken Salad (copycat)
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon oil
- ½ cup carrots chopped
- ½ cup bell pepper chopped (I used red)
- ½ cup edamame fresh or frozen
- 1 large chicken breast , sliced or chopped, about 1-½ cups
- 6 cup lettuce , Romaine preferred
- ¼ cup almonds , slivered
- ¼ cup cilantro , fresh, chopped
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Dressing
- ¼ cup peanut butter
- 1 Tbs soy sauce (I used low sodium)
- 1 Tbs lime juice
- 2 Tbs rice vinegar
- 2 Tbs sesame oil
Instructions
- Preheat a heavy skillet on medium heat on the stove top. Add oil, chicken, salt, and black pepper and cook until juices run clear and meat is done.
- While the chicken is cooking, prepare your carrots, bell pepper, lettuce, and cilantro.
- When chicken is done, add carrots, bell pepper, and edamame and cook for 10 minutes (stirring often).
- While cooking, prepare the dressing by adding all the dressing ingredients to a small bowl and mixing with a whisk.
- In a large bowl add chopped lettuce, almonds, and cilantro and combine.
- Once chicken and vegetables are done, remove from heat and let cool for 5-10 minutes before adding to salad.
- Add chicken and vegetables to lettuce mixture and combine.
- Sprinkle with red pepper flakes, black pepper, and salt, and toss to incorporate.
- Serve in separate bowls and add dressing in desired quantity.
- You may not need all the dressing, but it keeps well in the refrigerator and goes well on any type of salad.
Nancy L Lund says
Sounds amazing. As others stated, no ingredients were listed for the dressing so I looked it up (on Savorywithsoul but a different page). Here are the ingredients: For the Dressing
¼ cup peanut butter
1 Tablespoon soy sauce (I used low sodium)
1 Tablespoon lime juice
2 Tablespoons rice vinegar
2 Tablespoons sesame oil
Sounds amazing and can't wait to try this salad.
Sally says
My apologies, Nancy. The dressing ingredients were listed in the post, but I failed to add them to the recipe card. Will go do that right now (thought I had it fixed already). Enjoy!
Trace says
When I print the recipe the dressing ingredients are not listed. I found them in the article though, looking forward to trying this!
Sally says
Thanks for letting me know, Trace! Will fix it right now.
Robin Gault-Winton says
This sounds good but I am not seeing any ingredients that makes it "spicy" so not sure why it is labeled as such. I will add red chili flakes.