Mandarin Crispy Chicken Salad

You'll love the flavors in this mandarin orange crispy chicken salad. It's super easy to prep and is full of health ingredients. The best part is, this salad is kid friendly too!

★ Why You'll Love this Recipe ★ 

The whole family can enjoy this Mandarin Crispy Chicken Salad!

Don't believe it? I'm willing to bet you, it's true.

Yes, even if you have very picky eaters!

No more having to make two different meals. No more having to negotiate for bites of food. This simple trick for pleasing picky eaters might just open up new possibilities for you and your family. See more below in Tips section.

★ Ingredients You'll Need ★ 

This salad is very simple, made with just 6 ingredients!

Here's everything you'll need:

• Chicken strips. You can certainly make your own but to save time, I like to use good quality frozen chicken strips.
• Spinach. Fresh spinach, or a salad green mix including spinach.
• Cole slaw mix. Including cabbage and carrots.
• Mandarin oranges. These come canned, you will just drain away the juice.
• Dressing. I like to use Asian dressing. Sesame dressing or ginger dressing. Go with your favorite.
• Sesame seeds. Salted sesame seeds add a nice crunch and nutty flavor.

★ How to Make this Recipe ★ 

This salad is super simple the prep. To make it kid-friendly, simply offer is deconstructed.

★ Tips & FAQs ★ 

Plate your dinner according to who likes what.

Take the salad ingredients and plate them separately for the kids. Let the kids be a part of the process so they can choose what to put on their plate. Encourage them to try all of the ingredients, just separately.

You might be surprised to find that most kids will eat things like raw spinach leaves, when they're presented separately from other foods, and without dressing.

Here's what this Mandarin Orange Chicken Spinach Salad might look like plated for a kid:

Now, take the same ingredients, layer them in a bowl and add dressing. There. You have a sophisticated, parent-friendly meal that's bursting with flavor and freshness. Same food. Just presented and enjoyed differently.

Here's what this Mandarin Orange Chicken Spinach Salad looks like, plated for parents:

Yum! Yum!

Offer dips to get your kids to try new flavors.

You can have kids try the salad dressing as a dip, offer their favor dip, or put together a little palette of dips to sample. This can be a fun exercise in getting your kids to learn more about what they like and might encourage them try new things. If you offer the kids multiple dips, have them tell you about which ones they like and why. Is it spicy? Creamy? Sweet? Sour? Help them identify the flavors.

Here are a few dips you could try that go well with Crispy Chicken Strips:

So that's how to feed picky eaters without making two meals. And without eating "kid-food" all the time.

I have been using this technique to deal with picky eaters for a while now and it works really well! My picky eaters won't usually touch a casserole. But a pile of raw spinach? Yep, they'll eat that. I've tested this out with some neighborhood kids and it works with them too. Some parents are amazed when I tell them their kid ate spinach at my house. Seem too good to be true? Try it and you just might be surprised!

Here's another trick I use to save time while still preparing homemade meals...

The struggle to make meals at home is real. Especially if you're part of a busy family.

I try to save time wherever I can and one of my favorite ways to gain an extra couple hours a week is to order my groceries online. I take advantage of Walmart's pick up service by ordering using their website, pulling it up on my laptop or my phone. It saves me from having to bring tired and sometimes crabby kids through the store and keeps me on track with what I need to buy.

When I use Walmart's grocery pick up, I am also better able to stick to a meal plan which ultimately leads to less wasted food (and money!).

Sometimes I wake up really early and go get my groceries first thing so I can have a little alone time in the car with some music. Or I schedule pick up late at night after we're done with activities and my kids can just sit in the car and rest while we load up the van and head home. It just works really well for us and I'm always telling my friends about how awesome it is. Wish it had been a thing when my kids were little babies too, really! But happy to have it now at least.

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This recipe for Mandarin Orange Chicken Spinach Salad was featured on South Your Mouth!