Are you a fan of Chick-fil-A's kale crunch salad? If you are, we've got you covered. You'll be coming back to this recipe on repeat, because it's quick to assemble and so good for you.
If you love Chick-fil-A's salads, you'll want to check out our copycat market salad and our superfood salad.
Ingredients
Chick-fil-A's kale crunch salad takes only a few ingredients and it's super healthy, so if you're closely watching your calories and carbs, you'll want to eat this salad weekly.
- Vegetables: We used green cabbage and kale.
- Nuts: We used roasted and salted whole almonds.
- Dressing: We used our copycat recipe for their apple Dijon dressing.
How to Make
- To make the apple Dijon dressing, pour the apple cider vinegar on top of the pure maple syrup.
- Add the distilled vinegar, lemon juice, white wine, Dijon mustard, and the spices (sea salt and black pepper). Whisk until well mixed, then add the olive oil, and slowly pour it in while whisking.
3. If you find that the dressing isn't emulsifying with a whisk, pour it into a mason jar and give it a good shake. There should be 1 ¼ cups of dressing.
4. To assemble the salad, mix the kale and cabbage together.
5. If you're planning on eating this within 30 minutes, add most of the chopped almonds. (Save some for a garnish.) Pour on all the dressing. If you are making this ahead of time, only pour the dressing on what you plan to eat that day or within 24 hours.
6. Massage the kale with your hands for roughly 5 minutes. The kale should get softer, change color, and shrink down a little.
7. Add 1 tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice and sea salt to taste. Toss and cover and let it rest for 30 minutes on the counter or in the fridge overnight.
8. When ready to serve, toss it again and adjust any seasonings (vinegar, lemon juice, salt, or pepper). Garnish with the reserved almonds. Serve cold or at room temperature.
Recipe FAQs
Their website states it's a good choice for a healthy snack, and we also agree. It's also easy to eat on the go, because there's minimal ingredients that aren't messy.
Chick-fil-A's side salad has 120 calories with 8g of carbs and 9g of fat for 1 cup of salad. Our copycat version has a serving size of 1 cup with 227 calories, 14.3g of carbs, and 18.5g of fat. For more nutritional information, scroll to the end of the recipe card.
Our copycat recipe is higher in calories, fat, and carbs because of the salad dressing. Feel free to reduce the amount of dressing or have a smaller serving size if you're watching your calorie intake.
The Chick-fil-A salad apple Dijon dressing tastes slightly sweet and is subtle and mild. The curly kale is chewy, but not soggy. The crunch in the title comes from the green cabbage and the roasted salted almonds. Our copycat version tries to mimic the CFA original, but feel free to adjust the seasonings to your personal taste if you like a salad with a bit more bite.
They make it fresh every day in two sizes.
Serve
- Make Ahead: Yes, please do! This salad tastes better if it can rest with the dressing on it for at least 30 minutes to 3 hours for maximum results. We have also had it 24 hours later and it is still good. If you are planning on making a big batch, we suggest that you portion out what you want to eat in the next 24 hours before pouring on the dressing. Add the salty roasted almonds just before serving to have the maximum crunch.
- Leftovers: Place in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 day with dressing or 4 days without the dressing.
Variations
- Can't have nuts? Try roasted sunflower seeds.
- Don't want to use green cabbage? Swap it out with red cabbage; it's more colorful.
- Need more fat? Add avocado chunks.
- Want some grains? Add cooked and cooled quinoa.
Expert Tips
- Massage the kale for 5 minutes. It will darken in color and soften.
- For the best flavor, allow the salad to marinate for 30 minutes to 3 hours.
- Additional Add-Ins: chopped apple, dried cranberries, avocado chunks, sliced Brussels sprouts, julienned carrots, broccoli matchsticks, spring onion, Parmesan shards, roasted sunflower seeds, grilled chicken, grilled salmon, and quinoa.
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Recipe
Copycat Chick-fil-A Kale Crunch Salad
Ingredients
Apple Dijon Dressing
- ⅓ cup pure maple syrup
- 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons distilled vinegar
- 1 tablespoon white wine
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice, freshly squeezed
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
Kale Crunch Salad
- 9 cups chopped kale, packed
- 2 ½ cups green cabbage, shredded
- ½ cup whole almonds
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil, melted
- ½ teaspoon salt, optional
Instructions
Apple Dijon Dressing
- Pour the maple syrup and apple cider vinegar into a medium bowl or large mason jar.
- Add the distilled vinegar, white wine, and the Dijon mustard. Whisk if using a bowl, or shake together if using a mason jar.
- Next add the freshly squeezed lemon juice, sea salt, and black pepper. Whisk or shake together.
- Slowly pour in the olive oil while whisking, or put the lid on the mason jar and shake well. This recipe makes 1 ¼ cups.
Kale Crunch Salad
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Toss the whole almonds in the coconut oil and salt. Spread them on a small baking tray and roast for 10-15 minutes. Allow them to cool before cutting into smaller pieces with a large chef's knife.
- Remove any ribs from the chopped kale, then add the shredded green cabbage and toss with your hands.
- Pour on all of the apple Dijon dressing and massage the kale with your hands for roughly 5 minutes. You will notice the kale softening and turning a darker shade of green.
- Cover the salad and let it sit for 30 minutes (or up to overnight) in the fridge. This gives the kale time to soften, and for the cabbage and kale to marinate in the dressing.
- When ready to serve, add the roasted almonds and toss. Adjust seasonings, adding a bit more vinegar, lemon juice, salt or pepper if desired. You should have about 9 cups of salad.
Notes
- Massage the kale for 5 minutes. It will darken in color and soften.
- For the best flavor, allow the salad to marinate for 30 minutes to 3 hours.
- Additional add-ins: chopped apple, dried cranberries, avocado chunks, sliced Brussels sprouts, julienned carrots, broccoli matchsticks, spring onion, Parmesan shards, roasted sunflower seeds, grilled chicken, grilled salmon and quinoa.
Nutrition
Serving sizes and nutritional information are only an estimate and may vary from your results.
This recipe was originally posted on July 24, 2020 and has be updated with resized photos and refreshed content on December 2, 2022.
Jennifer
I have been meal prepping this salad for work lunches. However do you have any suggestions for storing the dressing? I have tried but after a couple days it gets thick and chunky.
Emma
Unfortunately, we don't have any tricks to help you here. The dressing doesn't have any preservatives or emulsifiers in it, so it really only keeps for 2 days or so. We'd suggest making a small batch of dressing at the beginning of the week and another small batch later in the week for the freshest results. Hope this helps, Jennifer!
Rosemary Saunders
This salad is DELICIOUS! The dressing is so good. Definitely massage the kale to make a "softer" salad.
Emma
Thank you so much, Rosemary! We are thrilled that you enjoy the salad and dressing so much!
Lisa R.
Would white wine vinegar be suffice?
Emma
No, apple cider vinegar has a completely different flavor than white wine vinegar. This is a very mild dressing, and it needs the sharpness of ACV to give it more flavor.
Rhonda Schuck
The dressing is delicious! With 5 1/2 cups of greens (kale and cabbage) I'm not sure how your recipe makes 9 cups. I measured the Kale and cabbage carefully, only added about 1/3 of the dressing and massaged the greens as directed, which reduced the volume quite a bit as the kale softened up. I can't imagine adding the entire volume of dressing to 5 1/2 cups of greens. Am I doing something wrong?
Emma
Rhonda, we recently had our recipe cards converted over to a different recipe plug-in. A typo must have occurred in this recipe card for the amount of kale listed and is now fixed. Thanks for letting us know. We hope you enjoy this healthy salad. Yes, the dressing is delicious!
Cynthia
Exactly the same..thank-you
Emma
You're welcome, Cynthia!
Debi
OMG this is better than chick-fil-a. There’s is very wilted, not crunchy like the name. LOVE this and Kale is so good for you. Those that think Kale is bitter needs to try this as they won’t say that after trying this.
Emma
That's lovely to hear, Debi! We're so glad that you enjoyed the salad more than Chick-fil-A's!
Scarlet
What is the coconut oil for? I’m confused
Emma
The almonds are tossed in the coconut oil before roasting.
Stephanie
Looks delicious! Must try! How long will the dressing stay good for?
Emma
The Apple Dijon dressing makes 1 1/4 cups. Try to use up the dressing within 4 days for the best flavor, if you can't use it up that quickly, make half of the recipe.
Our Kale Crunch salad recipe makes 9 cups and uses all the dressing. Let us know how it turned out for you. Our readers love this recipe.
Sarah
When you white wine, is there a type of white wine you use? Or do you use white wine vinegar? Would love some more info on that!
Emma
Please don't use white wine vinegar as there is already two kinds of vinegar in this dressing. Regular cooking wine was used. Please let us know how this Kale Crunch Salad recipe turned out for you. It is a reader favorite!
Crystal Curtis
Can you use reg drinking wine? I normally use that vs cooking wines
Emma
Absolutely! Enjoy!
A
This recipe is spot on and delicious. Thank you.
Emma
Thank you, A! So glad you enjoyed it!
Nichole
This recipe is super close to the chick fil a salad. It’s so delicious. I did make a few swaps on the dressing though. I left out the white wine, and I swapped tahini for the mustard. I also added all the ingredients for the dressing except for the olive in a jar. Shook it all up then added the olive oil and shook it all up again. Made it pretty darn simple. It’s super good! Thanks for the recipe. It’s definitely a keeper and will make an appearance or two at carry ins.
Emma
We're glad to hear that you enjoyed this salad so much, Nichole. Hopefully others will enjoy it at carry ins, too!
Morgan
The dressing for this tasted absolutely nothing like the one from Chick-fil-A. Waaaaay to much vinegar and a strong taste of syrup
Emma
We're sorry to hear that it didn't turn out for you, Morgan. It matched the dressing from our Chick-fil-A as close as we could make it. Making sure the ingredients have been measured accurately and adjusting the flavors to taste may help next time.