Zesty Chicken Larb Salad (Bright, Fast, and All Summer)

Name: Zesty Chicken Larb Salad
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 25 min
Cuisine: Thai
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons olive oil; 1.1 pounds (500 grams) ground chicken; 1 red onion, sliced; 2 cloves garlic, crushed; 1 stalk lemongrass, grated; 1 bunch of cilantro, separate leaves from stems/roots; 2 tablespoons tamari sauce or soy sauce; bunch of Thai basil leaves, picked; 5.3 ounces (150 grams) mixed salad leaves; 8.8 ounces (250 grams) mixed tomatoes, halved; 1.9 ounces (55 grams) almonds, toasted, chopped; Juice of 2 limes; 2 tablespoons fish sauce; 1 birdseye chili, finely sliced; ½ teaspoon palm sugar or brown sugar

posted by Sharon Chen on Jul 22, 2026 0 comments »

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A bright, 25-minute Zesty Chicken Larb Salad with lime-fish sauce dressing, fresh herbs, and toasted almonds.

There’s a very specific kind of chaos that happens in the week before a trip. Half my kitchen is already packed in my head — snorkel gear for my kid, the good hiking shoes, a list of “don’t forget” that keeps growing at 11 pm instead of shrinking. And somewhere in the middle of that chaos, I still have to feed us dinner.

This is the recipe I keep coming back to on nights like that. It’s loud with flavor and asks almost nothing of you. No oven (still don’t have one, still not mad about it), no long ingredient list you need a special trip for, and it comes together faster than I can talk myself into ordering delivery instead.

Larb is originally a Lao and Northern Thai dish — a minced meat salad built on that unmistakable trio of sour, salty, and hot. I’ve leaned into a version that’s a little more forgiving for a weeknight, but the bones of it are the same: bright lime, real fish sauce funk, and enough herbs that it barely feels like you’re eating “protein and greens.” It just feels like summer.

I think that’s part of what I love about cooking through a season of change — you don’t need everything to be resolved to want something delicious. Some nights the answer isn’t a grand gesture. It’s just: chop the herbs, char the chicken, squeeze the limes, sit down together before the suitcases take over the living room again.

Why This One Works So Hard

It’s a 25-minute dinner that doesn’t taste like one. The lemongrass and cilantro roots do a lot of the heavy lifting while the chicken browns.
It’s a full meal on its own — protein, greens, and crunch all in one bowl, no sides required.
It’s genuinely light, which is exactly what I want on a hot night when a heavy dinner is the last thing that sounds good.

StreetSmart Cooking Tips

No bird’s eye chili on hand? A pinch of dried chili flakes works, though you’ll lose a little of that fresh, sharp heat.
Ground turkey is a fine substitute if that’s what’s in your freezer.
If you’re prepping ahead, keep the dressing separate until serving — the salad leaves wilt fast once it hits them.

As always, if you make this recipe, I’d love to hear from you. Leave a rating and review and let other StreetSmart Chefs know what you think, what modifications you made, and how it suits your taste.