Korean Chicken Salad (Dak Nangchae)

Korean chicken salad is super popular during the hot summer season in Korea. Shredded poached chicken breast, cucumber, onion, and apple slices are dressed with a tangy sesame mustard dressing. This light and mayo-free chicken salad is great for BBQs and potluck parties.

Salad is always right when the weather gets warm. And that’s true for Korean cuisine as well.

This Korean chicken salad called “Dak Naengchae (닭냉채)” will be seen on many restaurant menus in Korea during the spring and summer.

You can make Dak Naengchae as complex as you want by adding veggies of all sorts of colors. Check out my cookbook, Korean Cooking Favorites, for another very authentic version of Korean chicken salad.

This recipe is simpler and quicker to prepare than the one in my cookbook, but it’s still authentic. I sometimes like to keep my chicken salad as simple as possible.

Lean chicken breast is poached in simmering water, then shredded. My Vietnamese chicken salad recipe uses the same poached chicken method, and chicken always turns out very moist and tender.

Crunchy cucumber and savory onions are added along with crisp, sweet apple slices. The gently sweet, tangy, and nutty sesame mustard salad dressing is the key for this mayo-free Korean chicken salad recipe. It has a nutty fragrance and taste from freshly grounded toasted sesame seeds.

Everything gets tossed with the dressing in a bowl and it is good to go. Simple, fast, and refreshingly delicious, Korean chicken salad is a dish that is perfectly low-carb and gluten-free!

Recipe ingredients & tips

For the salad:

• chicken breast – Poach chicken in simmering water with slices of ginger added. The ginger eliminates the gamey smell and helps the chicken moist and tender.
• onion – Soak onion slices in cold water to crisp up the texture. Doing so also reduces the strong taste of the raw onion.
• shallot or red onion – extra savory flavor
• cucumber – Salt cucumber slices and squeeze out the extra moisture. Salting them crunches up the cucumber and allows you to keep the salad longer in the fridge.
• sweet apple – Use your favorite sweet red apple for the color contrast. I used my favorite – Envy apple!

For the sesame mustard dressing:

• Korean mustard paste (yeongeoja)
• soy sauce – You will need a hint of it to add flavor
• rice vinegar – you can also use apple cider vinegar, too.
• honey – adds a hint of sweetness to the salad
• Korean plum extract – optional but recommended.
• sweet rice wine – adds depth to the dressing, and helps to get the right consistency
• sesame oil – adds nutty fragrance and flavor
• oil – adds sheen to the salad and keeps the flavor balanced
• toasted sesame seeds – Grind the toasted sesame seeds coarsely right before you make the dressing using a small mortar with a pestle or an electric grinder. You will get a nuttier taste in the dressing.

How to make Korean chicken salad

• Put a few thin slices of ginger in a pot of water. Bring to boil. Add the chicken breasts, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes.
• Remove the pot from heat, and leave chicken breast to stand with lid on for 20 minutes or longer. Shred the chicken breast.

• Meanwhile, soak onion slices in cold water for 5 minutes, then drain; set aside.
• Slice cucumber in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. Slice the cucumber in thin diagonal slices. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of salt on the cucumber slices and toss. Let sit for 5 minutes, then gently squeeze out the excess moisture from cucumber.

• In a small mortar, roughly grind up toasted whole sesame seeds with a pestle. Do not grind the sesame seeds too finely. You will want them coarsely crushed.
• In a small mixing bowl, combine Korean mustard paste, soy sauce, rice vinegar, honey, salt, Korean plum extract, rice wine, sesame oil and 1-1/2 tablespoon of crushed sesame seeds; mix well.

• In a large mixing bowl, combine shredded chicken, onions, cucumber, and apple slices. Pour the dressing over the other ingredients, and toss well to coat evenly.
• Put the salad in a serving dish and garnish with the remaining crushed sesame seeds. Serve immediately or chill in the refrigerator up to 30 minutes.

Serving Suggestion

Serve Korean chicken salad right away or chill in the refrigerator for 30-60 minutes before you serve. Keeping the salad longer than an hour might cause the oxidation on the apple.