Rice salad with crispy rice, spiced Cajun chicken and creamy ranch dressing – An easy main-course salad packed with protein.
Rice salad with crispy rice, juicy Cajun chicken and creamy ranch dressing – a satisfying, American-inspired main-course salad that really does have it all.
The rice is baked until crisp in the oven with sesame oil, soy sauce and chilli oil, giving it that irresistible crunch. Meanwhile, chicken breasts seasoned with Cajun spice are fried until golden and juicy, then pulled into coarse pieces.
The salad is assembled with crisp pointed cabbage, beans, avocado, cucumber and spring onions, which add both freshness and plenty of texture. Everything is tossed in a creamy ranch dressing, made a little lighter here with buttermilk, so it coats all the ingredients perfectly.
It’s a wonderful main-course salad with plenty of protein from both the chicken and the beans, so it fills you up and keeps you going for hours. Perfect for dinner and just as good in a packed lunch – the rice keeps its crunch nicely.
Alternative ranch dressing – without buttermilk
If you don’t have buttermilk – or simply prefer to make your ranch dressing without it – it can easily be made with crème fraîche instead.
For one batch of the dressing, I recommend adding about 100 ml extra crème fraîche (ideally a lower-fat one, so the dressing is a little lighter in consistency) and adjusting with about 50 ml water or milk. That makes the dressing lovely and creamy, but still thin enough to toss easily through the salad and coat all the ingredients evenly.
The flavour is still spot on, even without buttermilk – so feel free to adapt it to what you have in the kitchen and what you prefer.
Rice salad with crispy rice, Cajun chicken and ranch dressing
Ingredients
Crispy rice
- 400 g cooked, cold rice – ideally basmati or jasmine
- 2 tbsp sesame oil
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1-2 tbsp crispy chilli oil
Cajun chicken
- 400 g chicken breasts
- 1 tsp Cajun seasoning – click here for the recipe
- Oil
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
Ranch dressing
- 200 ml crème fraîche – ideally 9% fat
- 150 ml buttermilk
- 3 tbsp mayonnaise
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tbsp chives, finely chopped
- 2 tbsp parsley, finely chopped
- 1/2 lemon, juice of
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
For the salad
- 1/2 pointed cabbage, shredded also sold as sweetheart or hispi cabbage
- 200 g edamame beans, defrosted
- 1 tin kidney beans, drained
- 1 cucumber, diced
- 1-2 avocados, diced
- 3 spring onions, sliced
Method
Crispy rice
- Mix the rice thoroughly with the sesame oil, soy sauce and chilli oil and spread it in an even layer on a baking tray lined with baking paper.
- Bake in a preheated conventional oven (top and bottom heat) at 215°C for about 30-40 minutes – or until beautifully crisp. Turn the rice 2-3 times along the way.Leave to cool slightly on the baking paper.
Cajun chicken
- Halve the chicken breasts horizontally (parallel to the board), so you get 2 thinner, flat fillets from each piece. Season with Cajun seasoning, salt and freshly ground pepper.
- Heat a splash of oil in a frying pan and fry the chicken until golden and cooked through.
- Pull the meat apart into coarse pieces and leave to cool.
Dressing and salad
- Stir the dressing ingredients together and season to taste with lemon juice, salt and freshly ground pepper.
- Put the vegetables, beans, chicken and crispy rice in a large bowl. Spoon just over half of the dressing over the top and toss well.
- Add more dressing to taste, and serve the rest on top of the salad.
Nutrition
Premium
Når det er en portion til 4 og der står 648 kalorier, er det så pr person
Hejsa
Ja kalorie indhold er pr person, stk osv – alt efter hvad opskriften beskriver af enhed:)
Warm wishes, Dianna
Skriv mængden af rå ris der skal koges..det er ikke særligt hjælpsomt som opskriften er lavet.
100 g rå ris svarer ca til 250 gr kogt.
Hej Charlotte
Jeg lavede selv opskriften ud fra rester af ris – derfor den er skrevet som den er:)
Dbh Dianna
Den ser lækker ud! Er de 400 g ris i rå eller kogt tilstand- og hvor meget ris skal man egentlig koge for at få 400 gram? 🙂
Hej Sofie
Tusind tak 🙂
Ja de 400 gram er kogte ris. Det svarer til ca. 160-200 gram rå ris vil jeg skyde på 🙂
Om der er lidt mere gør ikke noget, de smager SÅ godt 🙂
Warm wishes, Dianna