My homemade take on the viral TikTok fast food salad hack, made with a kale, cabbage and lettuce base, dressed with a honey mustard vinaigrette and topped with honey and hot sauce tossed crispy chicken tenders.
Cabbage and Kale Chicken Strip Salad
If you're not a big fan of kale, stay tuned y'all. I think you'll love this, I really do! Read on.
The inspiration for this salad came from a video that passed my timeline on social media one day.
The gal shooting the video was sitting in her car in the parking lot of Chick-fil-A with a drive through order. The hack was with their Kale Crunch Salad and an add on 3-piece chicken strip meal which she tossed in the box with a packet of buffalo sauce and honey. She tore the strips with her fingers and topped her salad with them.
I thought it sounded good and since I don't have a Chick-Fil-A nearby, I got one of those well "I can make that at home" vibes y'all.
Just a quick reminder.... if you aren't interested in the chit chat, info, photos, tips, product recommendations and such on a blog, as always, you'll find the complete recipe text with measurements and instructions, as well as a printable document, a little bit further down the page. Just swipe or scroll down to the bottom of the post!
I'm gonna be honest here. I am not a huge fan of kale to begin with, not at all, although I do love it roasted like crunchy chips. But while this salad has a kale base, it also has cabbage, iceberg and romaine, plus some add-ins, and it's really tasty, quite a surprise and a great summer option.
I'm glad that I tried it and I've already got the ingredients in my next grocery cart order!
Here's what you'll need to make my Cabbage and Kale Chicken Strip Salad:
4 breaded chicken strips, depending on size
2 teaspoons honey
2 teaspoons buffalo or hot sauce
For the Dressing:
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon Creole or Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons local honey
1/2 teaspoon sea, spring or kosher salt, or to taste
1/4 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
For the Salad:
1 (12 ounce) bag kale and cabbage salad blend
1 cup each shredded romaine and iceberg lettuce
1 heaping tablespoon roasted salted almonds, chopped
1 tablespoon dried cranberries, optional
2 teaspoons salted, roasted pepitas, optional
Here's how to make it!
The recipe as written will serve two, or one hungry guy or gal, though it can certainly be increased for a family. Let's start with the dressing.

Meanwhile whisk together the dressing ingredients; set aside. Rotary whisk (#ad).


I already had some Good Chop chicken strips in the freezer but of course you can also just make your own from fresh chicken tenders or sliced boneless breasts.

Now, first, I'm not associated financially with Good Chop in any way other than being a customer who is concerned about our food supply. I've been sourcing my meats the last few years from various ranchers and other sources across the country and Good Chop is one of those. And yes, even breaded chicken breast strips and nuggets matter!
These strips are from chickens that are hatched, raised on a vegetarian diet and harvested in the USA. They are raised without antibiotics or added hormones, and I don't know about y'all, but today I'm concerned about all of that.
I'm using one of my pull choppers (#ad) to chop up the almonds. This is a handy tool to keep in the kitchen for sure and way easier to chop nuts than having them fly off of the cutting board everywhere! I have a couple of them and use them all the time for small batch chopping.

You don't want to pulverize them but chop them coarsely to get an easier bite.

Bake or air fry chicken strips according to package directions. I just did my strips in my countertop oven (#ad) on the air fryer setting. I find I'm using that countertop oven way more than my big range. It just makes more sense cooking for just the two of us, but especially in these hot summer days.

For the honey, while you can certainly use any grocery store honey, I suggest trying to find a local source for the honey you use. Local honey is 100% pure honey, where other usual sources are sometimes cut with other ingredients, like corn syrup. Frankly, local honey just tastes better and you're also supporting your own local economy, and local bees! This is one of several sources from my area that I buy. I also don't keep buffalo sauce (#ad) in my pantry, but I always have hot pepper sauce, so that's what I'm going with today.
Here's how to make it!
The recipe as written will serve two, or one hungry guy or gal, though it can certainly be increased for a family. Let's start with the dressing.
Note: As an Amazon.com Services LLC Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases linked in my posts and marked as #ad or #affiliate links.
Meanwhile whisk together the dressing ingredients; set aside. Rotary whisk (#ad).
I already had some Good Chop chicken strips in the freezer but of course you can also just make your own from fresh chicken tenders or sliced boneless breasts.
Now, first, I'm not associated financially with Good Chop in any way other than being a customer who is concerned about our food supply. I've been sourcing my meats the last few years from various ranchers and other sources across the country and Good Chop is one of those. And yes, even breaded chicken breast strips and nuggets matter!
These strips are from chickens that are hatched, raised on a vegetarian diet and harvested in the USA. They are raised without antibiotics or added hormones, and I don't know about y'all, but today I'm concerned about all of that.
I'm using one of my pull choppers (#ad) to chop up the almonds. This is a handy tool to keep in the kitchen for sure and way easier to chop nuts than having them fly off of the cutting board everywhere! I have a couple of them and use them all the time for small batch chopping.
You don't want to pulverize them but chop them coarsely to get an easier bite.
Bake or air fry chicken strips according to package directions. I just did my strips in my countertop oven (#ad) on the air fryer setting. I find I'm using that countertop oven way more than my big range. It just makes more sense cooking for just the two of us, but especially in these hot summer days.
For the honey, while you can certainly use any grocery store honey, I suggest trying to find a local source for the honey you use. Local honey is 100% pure honey, where other usual sources are sometimes cut with other ingredients, like corn syrup. Frankly, local honey just tastes better and you're also supporting your own local economy, and local bees! This is one of several sources from my area that I buy. I also don't keep buffalo sauce (#ad) in my pantry, but I always have hot pepper sauce, so that's what I'm going with today.
Put the tenders in a bowl and drizzle with the honey and hot sauce. Cover and shake to coat the tenders.
Don't these look so good now? Maybe like a lighter version of Nashville Hot Chicken? I don't know, but I'd go so far as to say this is a good way to serve those tenders as a main dish anytime. Yummy!
Chop into bite sized pieces.
The popularity of kale means that it now comes in a multitude of salad kits that you can find just about everywhere. I found a Taylor Farms brand cabbage and kale blend salad kit at my local Walmart, that includes red cabbage, green cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, pepitas, brussels sprouts and cranberries.
You could also certainly start off with cabbage and kale that you shred up yourself and use any of the add-in elements. Just set aside any dressing that comes with the kit you find and use for another salad another day.
Slice up the iceberg and romaine lettuces.
Add the kale and cabbage and lettuces to a serving bowl.
Add the dressing - the one you made, not the one that came in the kit.
Give it a toss.
Add chicken to the top of the salad and sprinkle with chopped almonds.

For more of my favorite salads, check out the collection on my Pinterest page!
Unable to view the printable above on your device? Tap/click here for a backup printable.
Thank you for supporting my work! Please note that Images and Full Post Content including photographs and recipe ©Deep South Dish. Recipes are offered for your own personal use only and while pinning and sharing links is welcomed and encouraged, do not copy and paste post or recipe text to repost or republish to any social media (such as other Facebook pages, etc.), blogs, websites, forums, or any print medium, without explicit prior permission. Unauthorized use of content from ©Deep South Dish is a violation of both the federal Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and copyright law. All rights reserved.
Material Disclosure: Unless otherwise noted, you should assume that post links to the providers of goods and services mentioned, establish an affiliate relationship and/or other material connection and that I may be compensated when you purchase from a provider. You are never under any obligation to purchase anything when using my recipes and you should always perform due diligence before buying goods or services from anyone via the Internet or offline.
20250513
.