Cold Chicken Noodle Salad

Using up cold meat in a chicken noodle salad is a quick light lunch using various ingredients from the fridge.

This looks like a long ingredient list and a lot of chopping. Although you’re not making a massive amount and the carrot takes longest. I had this noodle salad served up in around twenty minutes plus time to boil the kettle for the noodle water.

As a Saturday lunch, it’s that time of the week we usually have the last pieces of meat to pick at on the chicken. My husband is well trained to strip the roast chicken carcass of the last offerings and probably tonight I’ll boil the chicken bones for stock before buying a new chicken at the butcher tomorrow (mine is open Sunday mornings!).

This was one of those days in lockdown where we have avoided the supermarket for over a week. I normally do sandwiches on weekdays then toasties on Saturdays. So chicken noodle salad was out of the ordinary and felt virtuous too. It was satisfying to make a nutritious meal from sad looking fridge bits that was tasty and healthy at the same time. It was also very easy and didn’t use any expensive ingredients.

I bought this crockery in Waitrose a few years ago, although similar styles are sold elsewhere. I’ve always said I impulse buy crockery the way other women do shoes. I always enjoy using these cheerful dishes for Asian inspired rice or noodle-y things. I used them also here in my shiitake and quorn noodles. Using different dishes for different types of food can make meals more interesting. I avoid bothering with full sets of things but am a sucker for hoovering up sale crockery pieces in twos or threes where they match with other stuff we already have. Think of it like a wardrobe for your dinner!

Print Recipe

5 from 1 vote

Cold Chicken Noodle Salad

A light lunch of noodles with chopped salad ingredients and leftover cold chicken.

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time5 minutes mins

Total Time20 minutes mins

Course: Family Food, Light Meals, Lunch, Picnic, Salad

Cuisine: Asian influence, Chinese, oriental

Keyword: chicken salad, chopped salad, egg noodles, leftover chicken, noodle salad

Servings: 4

Calories: 292kcal

Equipment

• saucepan medium

Ingredients

• 4 nests dried egg noodles fine or medium
• 1 tbsp Hoi Sin sauce
• 1 tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 tbsp mirin
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp soy sauce light
• 300 g cooked chicken pieces from leftover roast are perfect
• 1 tbsp sesame seeds
• 1 tbsp fresh coriander (cilantro) handful, finely chopped
• 1 medium carrot finely chopped
• 6 spring onions (scallions) finely sliced
• 1 quarter cucumber cut into small chunks
• 1 whole tomato cut into small chunks (optional)

Instructions

• Boil the dried noodles in a saucepan filled with water for several minutes until they go soft.
• Drain and refresh with cold water a couple of times until the noodles are nearly cold. Leave them sitting in the water whilst you do everything else
• (NOTE - IF NOT USING THE NOODLES NOW) Drain them at once and toss in the sesame and sunflower oils to help reduce strands sticking together.
• In a small bowl, stir together the dressing ingredients; hoi sin sauce, vinegar, mirin, oils, soy sauce.
• Add the chopped ingredients and stir through; chicken, sesame seeds, coriander, carrot, spring onion, cucumber, tomato.
• Finally drain the cold water from the cooked noodles and toss them with the other ingredients until well coated and combined.
• Serve immediately or you could equally box it up for a packed lunch!
  

Notes

In place of the tomato you can use remainders of salad ingredients from the fridge. Such as radish, fennel, white or Chinese leaf cabbage or last bits of bagged spinach or lettuce.

What other chicken noodle dishes can I make?

Here are three other noodle dishes that don’t use chicken but would work by swapping ingredients. If you are happy to spend some time chopping, this chopped salad with rice noodles and salsa verde is really tasty. Should you prefer soup with your noodles, take a look at my quorn vegetarian noodles. Alternatively there’s my tom yum prawn noodle soup, another lockdown recipe!

What else can you make for lunch with leftover chicken?

Another lunch dish perfect for using leftover chicken would be my rainbow burrito wraps with spicy chicken.