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Poached Coconut Chicken Sesame Salad amazing for dinner or lunch!

February 20, 2017 by Tania 23 Comments

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Poached Coconut Chicken Sesame Salad is perfect BBQ food for parties and makes the perfect dinner or lunch. Make it anytime, it’s a great one for all the family

Chicken Sesame Salad

This Poached Coconut Chicken Sesame Salad is perfect BBQ food for parties or just for dinner.

It’s my new favourite, a combination of Coconut, Coriander, mint, crunchy cabbage and a truckload of sesame seeds. What could be better?  I’ve turned into my son, and I love making a big bowl of something delicious that I can eat for days on end through all the hot and horrible days I don’t want to cook anything.

Luckily all that green and crunchy suits me just fine. The one thing about this spectacular salad is how I poach the chicken. Poached Chicken in coconut and herbs like this can be used in so many other salads. It’s pretty good thrown into a chilli, lime and mango noodle salad and not so shabby tossed with roasted sweet potato, peanuts and beanshoots too. I’m going to show you how you can make Coconut Poached Chicken, to be used in this Cabbage Sesame and any other one you like, it’s easy.

Chicken Sesame salad with Cabbage

Salt the cabbage it makes all the difference

Did you know that if you slice your cabbage and lightly salt it before dressing it becomes soft and the water seeps out of it making it softer and more flexible? This makes it easier to add the dressing and encourages the flavours in the dressing to penetrate the salad. It’s nice and crunchy but soft and ready to munch! Add just a small pinch of salt and toss the cabbage letting it sit for a couple of minutes while you get the other bits ready.

Chicken Sesame Salad with cabbage and lemon

Once I have poached the chicken, I shred it into bite-sized pieces, by hand and then set it aside in the fridge. This salad is a beauty and will surprise people because it’s a bit different and very filling too. It’s best eaten the day you make it, although as I have already said….I can eat it for days. It’s my kind of fast food.

Chicken Sesame Salad with Lime

This is how it’s done. Watch the video and give the Poached Coconut Chicken Sesame Salad a try. It’s extra delicious.

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Vietnamese Salad with Pickled Carrot Vietnamese salad with cucumber and pickled carrot on a white platter

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Chicken Sesame Salad

Poached Coconut Chicken Sesame Salad

5 from 4 votes
Basically this is Asian slaw on steroids. It’s a filling dinner salad or lunch. When asked to bring a plate or pot luck dish…..this is the one. Don’t skip the salting of the cabbage. It makes it limp and ready to soak up the dressing. Poaching chicken this way results in a juicy delicious chicken you can use for soups, noodles or salads
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 15 minutes mins
Cook Time 15 minutes mins
Total Time 30 minutes mins
Servings: 6
Course: dinner, Gluten free, Lunch, Salad
Cuisine: Asian Inspired
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

Poaching the chicken
  • 400 ml coconut milk 1 can, or cream
  • 250 ml chicken stock 1 cup
  • 3 stalks green onion chopped
  • 5 slices ginger
  • 3 cloves garlic cut/ crushed
  • 2 stalks coriander roots and all
  • 40 ml fish sauce
  • 1 kg chicken breasts (about 6 even sized)
Dressing
  • 80 ml Sesame oil 4 Tablespoons / 1/4 cup
  • 80 ml rice vinegar 4 Tablespoons / 1/4 cup
  • 40 ml lime juice
  • 125 ml coconut poaching liquid 1/2 cup
  • 40 gm caster sugar or palm sugar 2 Tablesp or to taste
Salad
  • 500 gm White cabbage 1/4 of a large cabbage
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt or 1/2 tsp table salt
  • 1 cup corn kernels uncooked, from 2 ears of corn
  • 1 bunch coriander stalks chopped leaves picked
  • 1/2 bunch shallots about 5 stalks sliced (green onion)
  • 1 bunch mint picked
  • 1/2 cup fried shallots Asian stores
  • 1/2 cup toasted sesame seeds

Method
 

Start with the poached chicken.
  1. Add the coconut, chicken stock, fish sauce, green onions, ginger and garlic to a pot that has a fitting lid. Add the chicken breasts ( approximately 6 in a kg). Bring the pot up to a boil. When it starts to boil stir and put the lid on. Turn the heat off and don’t lift the lid again for 15 minutes. The chicken should be perfectly poached
  2. **Check the thickest piece. Make sure there are no pink left in the chicken. Reheat those pieces to make sure it is cooked.
  3. Take the chicken out of the pot and put the poaching liquid and chicken in the fridge.
For the salad
  1. Finely slice the cabbage. Mix the salt through it and set aside for at least 10 minutes to 1/2 an hour while you prepare the other ingredients.
  2. Add the corn, sliced green onion, coriander and mint to the cabbage. Slice or tear the chicken into pieces and add that too. Add the fried shallots and 3/4 of the sesame seeds. Toss together.
To make the dressing
  1. Add the sugar, vinegar, lime juice , sesame oil and 1/2 cup of poaching liquid and shake well. Taste the dressing and add more sugar or lime to suit your taste. There is no wrong amount
  2. Dress the salad and toss well.
  3. Finish the salad with the extra seeds and some coriander.

Notes

Don’t forget to toast the sesame seeds. You can do that by placing them on a tray and baking in a moderate oven (fan off) for 10 – 15 minutes or tossing them in a dry frypan until they start to turn golden. Pour them straight out onto a dish and cool.
When making this dressing, add sugar, lime and fish sauce to suit your taste. Remember when it is added to the salad it will not taste as strong as it does in the jar

 

www.mykitchenstories.com.au

Need more Salad Dressing ideas? Try these 6 Salad Dressing that will change everything

An idea inspired by TheKitchn.

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Filed Under: Gluten Free, RECIPES, Salad Tagged With: BBq salad, cabbage salad, chicken salad, coconut chicken, hoiw to poach chicken in coconut, poached chicken, poached coconut chicken, poaching chicken, Salad, salad for dinner, salting cabbage for salad

Previous Post: « Bocconcini and Bubbles. A Bocconcini workshop.
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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Julie

    February 12, 2025 at 10:19 am

    5 stars
    Am part way through making this yummy sounding salad and realised the dressing instructions mention sugar but the ingredients list doesn’t? I’ve referred other recipes and a tablespoon palm sugar seems appropriate for amount of lime juice

    Reply
    • Tania

      June 20, 2025 at 10:44 am

      Yes. I have checked this and addd. The recipe now reflects this. Thank you

      Reply
  2. Shari from GoodFoodWeek

    March 1, 2017 at 1:39 pm

    Yum – this salad looks fantastic. Thanks for linking up with the Ultimate Rabbit Hole xox

    Reply
  3. Sammie @ The Annoyed Thyroid

    February 25, 2017 at 9:48 pm

    That looks so good! We’ve just got on the poached chicken train, but I love the idea of using the coconut milk for cooking and in the dressing. Pinning for later!

    Reply
  4. Karen (Back Road Journal)

    February 24, 2017 at 1:11 am

    I like Asian salads and your coconut poached chicken salad sounds great with all the flavors you have added to it.

    Reply
    • Tania

      February 24, 2017 at 10:43 am

      Yeah it’s pretty good.I love anything with coconut of course

      Reply
  5. John | heneedsfood

    February 24, 2017 at 12:04 am

    I love that you don’t hold back on the sesame seeds. Great salad!

    Reply
    • Tania

      February 24, 2017 at 10:44 am

      Yes I do love a sesame seed. most underrated in m opinion

      Reply
  6. Maureen

    February 22, 2017 at 6:56 pm

    5 stars
    I have always tried that poaching method but gone with 20 minutes instead of 15. I did it 15 once and the chicken was still quite pink in the middle. I’ll try it again and I’ll talk to that chicken before I put it in.

    Is this the vegan chicken?? Maybe that’s the difference??

    I love you to bits!

    Reply
    • Tania

      February 22, 2017 at 10:26 pm

      Well you need to poach it a little longer if it is big, but you could also slice them in half. PS Love you too!

      Reply
  7. Angie@Angie's Recipes

    February 22, 2017 at 5:43 pm

    I always love to cook chicken in coconut milk, but never add fish sauce in it. Gotta give it a try next time. The salad looks awesome, Tania.

    Reply
    • Tania

      February 22, 2017 at 10:27 pm

      Oh you should. the fish sauce is so good.

      Reply
  8. Ruby & Cake

    February 22, 2017 at 1:03 pm

    5 stars
    Pinned! I am making this for dinner tonight!! but i want it now, this is my kind of salad. Thanks for the salting the cabbage tip – we eat a lot f cabbage based salads so excited to see the difference it will make. Thank you for sharing this gorgeous recipe xx

    Reply
    • Tania

      February 22, 2017 at 10:27 pm

      No thank you for visiting.

      Reply
  9. cheri

    February 22, 2017 at 4:42 am

    5 stars
    Love that you poach the chicken in coconut milk such a clever way to add flavor, fantastic salad.

    Reply
    • Tania

      February 22, 2017 at 7:20 am

      Thanks Cheri. Its an old trick I’ve been perfecting over the years

      Reply
  10. grace

    February 22, 2017 at 4:08 am

    oh, i’ll bet that chicken is SO flavorful! what a great poaching liquid, and what a filling and nutritious salad!

    Reply
    • Tania

      February 22, 2017 at 7:20 am

      Yes Grace a beauty it is!

      Reply
  11. Helen | Grab Your Fork

    February 21, 2017 at 11:28 pm

    Perfect salad for a backyard barbie! Thanks for the cabbage salting tip too.

    Reply
  12. Amanda (@lambsearshoney)

    February 21, 2017 at 8:30 am

    Wow – sounds like the perfect summer salad. Four tablespoons of sesame oil must give it quite a flavour punch.

    Reply
    • Tania

      February 21, 2017 at 10:01 pm

      Yes the sesame oil really makes it good!

      Reply
  13. Kari @ bite-sized thoughts

    February 21, 2017 at 1:59 am

    Thanks for the salt trick! I would love this with tofu.

    Reply
    • Tania

      February 21, 2017 at 10:01 pm

      Oh that would be great Kari.

      Reply

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Tania Cusack Hi, I'm Tania and this is My Kitchen Stories. I share all kinds of recipes here. Most recipes are quick and easy, just perfect for families. BUT, you could also find vegan, cakes and desserts too. Come and have a look around Read More
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24 shares