This Spicy Thai Chicken Zoodle Salad is a dead-simple, low carb, Whole30-friendly, colorful, and super satisfying paleo meal that you can get from fridge to mouth in 10 minutes or less.
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A healthy and delicious meal for one!
Are you neglecting your own needs ’cause you’re always looking after someone else’s—say, your sniffly kids or a needy partner? Take a breather!
Seriously: it’s time you treated yourself to a dead-simple, colorful, and super satisfying meal that you can get from fridge to mouth in 10 minutes or less. Use the extra time you save to flop on the couch and watch a trashy episode of your favorite Real Housewives franchise. (Me? I like to savor my no-cook zoodle bowl with the ladies from Hotlanta.)
What’s the best spiralizer?
I have three different spiralizers I love that transform zucchini into noodles (a.k.a. zoodles) in a jiffy. The Oxo Tabletop Spiralizer is great, but you end up with a little more veggie waste at the core. If you’re not going to make veggie noodles all the time, you can just buy an inexpensive julienne peeler or an Oxo handheld spiralizer.
Can you make this dish ahead of time?
Not really. The zoodles can get watery if you leave them in the dressing too long. However, you don’t really need to make it ahead because this salad is so quick to throw together! If you want to pack it for lunch, don’t mix in the dressing until you’re ready to eat it.
Ingredients
Dressing
- Sunflower seed butter or your favorite nut butter
- Sriracha
- Juice from ½ lime
- Pinch of salt
Zoodle salad
- Zucchini
- Carrot
- Leftover cooked chicken, shredded
- Avocado
- Cherry tomatoes, halved
- Green onion, thinly sliced
- Fresh cilantro leaves
- Toasted sesame seeds
How to make spicy Thai noodle salad
Make the dressing in a large bowl by combining the sunflower seed butter, sriracha, lime juice, and a pinch of salt.
Whisk well to blend a thick sauce. Ta-dah!
Now go grab your veggies and leftover cooked chicken from the fridge.
Grab your vegetable spiralizer and make your zoodles.
Finish dicing and chopping your other veggies and herbs.
Dump the raw zoodles into the bowl of dressing…
…and add the julienned carrots and chicken.
Toss well to combine.
If you’re feeling fancy, transfer the salad to a clean bowl and top with sliced avocado, cherry tomatoes, scallions, cilantro, and toasted sesame seeds.
Go ahead and eat. You deserve it!
Have a ton of zucchini to cook up? Make my delicious and simple Instant Pot Zucchini Bolognese recipe!
More paleo and Whole30 “noodle” recipes
Looking for more recipe ideas? Head on over to my Recipe Index. You’ll also find exclusive recipes in my cookbooks, Nom Nom Paleo: Food for Humans (Andrews McMeel Publishing 2013), Ready or Not! (Andrews McMeel Publishing 2017), and Nom Nom Paleo: Let’s Go! (Andrews McMeel Publishing 2022).
PRINTER-FRIENDLY RECIPE CARD
Spicy Thai Chicken Zoodle Salad (Whole30, Gluten Free, Low Carb)
Ingredients
Dressing
- 1 tablespoon sunflower seed butter or your favorite nut butter
- 1 teaspoon sriracha
- Juice from ½ lime
- Pinch of salt
Salad
- 1 medium zucchini ends trimmed
- 1 small carrot peeled and thinly sliced
- 1 cup leftover cooked chicken shredded
- ¼ avocado peeled and thinly sliced
- ½ cup cherry tomatoes halved
- 1 small scallion thinly sliced
- 1 tablespoon fresh cilantro leaves
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds
Instructions
- Make the dressing in a large bowl by combining the sunflower seed butter, sriracha, lime juice, and a pinch of salt. Whisk well to blend a thick sauce. Ta-dah!
- Now go grab your veggies and leftover cooked chicken from the fridge. Get your vegetable spiralizer and make your zoodles.
- Finish dicing and chopping your other veggies and herbs.
- Dump the raw zoodles into the bowl of dressing and add the julienned carrots and chicken. Toss well to combine.
- If you’re feeling fancy, transfer the salad to a clean bowl and top with sliced avocado, cherry tomatoes, scallions, cilantro, and toasted sesame seeds. Eat immediately.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This looks amazing!
So good! My husband made it tonight for dinner with your Pho recipe!
This is a keeper! I didn’t have chicken so I subbed prawns – yum 🙂
OOOh good idea!!!
Hi Michelle.
Is this still worth making, in your opinion, if the sriracha has to be left out for specific dietary restrictions? Also is there anything you can suggest to replace the sriracha for added flavor but not necessarily heat?
I know this comment is over a year old, but you could try Mel Joulwan’s Sunshine Sauce. https://meljoulwan.com/2009/07/21/sunshine-sauce/
TRY THIS RECIPE ASAP! You probably have the ingredients in the house already, and it’s so flexible to add whatever else you want. Yesterday I roasted chicken thighs – in that 30 min I made the sauce and spiralized/chopped the veggies. I doubled the recipe so that we have leftovers. We did zoodles plus carrots, snap peas, tomatoes, cilantro, mint, and parsley. I threw in some pickled red onion too! Yummy, fast, easy, healthy! ✅ ✅✅✅
Delicious and so filling!
Oh, this was delightful on a warm summer’s eve. So simple and a burst of flavors. I added garbanzo beans, because I pretty much add them to everything! Thank you so much. It’s definitely a keeper!
This was so delicious and refreshing on a hot summer evening! I added some sliced mango and unsalted roasted peanuts for added crunch. ❤️