Panera Thai Chicken Salad

Panera’s Thai chicken salad with edamame, roasted peppers, cashews, and peanut chili vinaigrette. It’s one of best salads at Panera and now you can make it at home!

It serves absolutely amazing with a side of Broccoli Potato Soup for a light lunch or even dinner.

this recipe

Panera Spicy Thai Chicken Salad

I love a good salad. For as long as I can remember, salad has always been my go to for lunch and sometimes even dinner. I mean you can’t go wrong with a bowl of crispy lettuce, fresh veggies, and homemade vinaigrette.

These days when I’m out, Panera’s Thai Chicken Salad with Thai chili vinaigrette and spicy peanut sauce is my absolute favorite salad. It’s loaded with yummy things like edamame, roasted peppers, cilantro, and cashews. It’s spicy, crunchy, and just delicious all around.

I recreated the recipe and put my own spin on it to make at home whenever a craving strikes. The best part is that it’s an incredibly easy salad recipe. It makes an amazing lunch with a roasted tomato basil soup, hummus veggie sandwich or I double up the portions and serve it for dinner.

Panera Thai Salad Ingredients

This salad is all about the Thai chili vinaigrette! It’s a super flavorful vinaigrette that pulls all the ingredients together. If you want less spicy, definitely cut back on red pepper flakes. See my notes in the recipe card.

You’ll need: peanut butter, red pepper flakes, honey, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, lime juice, ginger, and garlic.

The rest of the salad ingredients are simple!

• Chicken – rotisserie chicken works great! Or make your own. See easy how to below.
• Romaine lettuce – about 1-2 heads or 6 cups chopped
• Carrots
• Edamame – frozen and shelled
• Roasted red peppers – jarred from the store (no need to make your own)
• Cilantro
• Roasted cashews 
• Variations or add ins: basil, mint, cucumbers, peanuts, mango 

Easy Chicken Breast for Salads

If you’re skipping rotisserie chicken and making your own chicken for the salad, here’s my go-to recipe. I love using it in many salad recipes where it calls for cooked chicken, including strawberry spinach chicken salad.. It’s a foolproof recipe that relies on bone-in, skin-on, chicken breast.

Why bones and skin? Because it protects the chicken from drying out in the oven. So the chicken breast is always juicy, moist, and tender. Here’s how I do it:

• Prep: lightly pat dry the chicken breast with few sheets of paper towels. 
• Season: drizzle with olive oil and rub all over to coat. Season thoroughly with salt and pepper all over. 
• Cook: roast in a 425 F oven for 45ish minutes or until cooked through. Cooking time will depend on the size of the chicken breast. I would start checking for doneness around 35-40 minutes.
• Chop: cool slightly and then pull the chicken off the bones. Chicken should easily separate from the bones. Discard the skin and either shred the chicken with your hands or dice into bite-size pieces.

How to Make Panera Thai Salad

There are only a few steps to making this Thai salad. You can prep ahead by making the vinaigrette and keeping it refrigerated until ready to serve. Same with the rest of the salad: prep all the veggies, chicken, and keep separate until ready to serve.

• Step 1: Cook carrots and edamame in little oil over medium-high heat until lightly charred and smoky. I love a cast-iron skillet for this step.

• Step 2: While the veggies are cooking, make the Thai chili vinaigrette by whisking all of the ingredients together. Don’t forget to season with salt and pepper. 

• Step 3: In a large salad bowl, combine the rest of the salad ingredients, including the carrots and edamame with the vinaigrette. Toss around to combine. Taste for salt before serving.

Leftovers/Make Ahead

So what about the leftovers? Or maybe you want to prep this salad ahead of time to enjoy throughout the week? Well, salad is best served right away after it’s been tossed with the vinaigrette. I mean if you make it for lunch and have leftovers for dinner – it should be okay too.

Ideally, you want to store leftover salad, chicken, and vinaigrette separate, otherwise, it will turn soggy. You can, however, make the vinaigrette ahead of time and keep refrigerated for a few days. 

Panera Thai salad would be great to serve alongside small-bite type things such as 4-Ingredient Easy Potstickers, Chili Garlic Edamame, or Vegetable Rice Paper Rolls.

If you try Thai Chicken Salad, don’t forget to leave feedback and a rating.

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Originally published August 2014, updated August 2019 with new photos and rewritten post.