Asian Chicken Pasta Salad

This salad is the perfect salad to serve at your next big family gathering, a baby shower...a bridal shower...even a regular Thursday...it's so good!

Author: Kami | NoBiggie.net

Ingredients

Salad ingredients:

1 box bow tie pasta
4 chicken breasts cooked & shredded or all the breast meat of one large rotisserie chicken
1/4 cup green onions sliced & diced into oblivion
1/2 pack sliced almonds toasted
1 bag baby spinach stems removed
1 small bag pea pods
1 small can mandarin oranges drained

For the Salad Dressing (Double this for the marinade)

1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1/3 cup vegetable oil *or sesame oil is great here too
1/3 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup sesame seeds toasted
1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper

Instructions

Toast the sesame seeds in a dry pan, remove from heat and separate into two bowls for the dressings.
Shred the chicken breast meat from a rotisserie chicken.
Mix up the two separate batches of the dressing to be used as a marinade and later as a salad dressing.
Cook the pasta until al dente (do not over cook the pasta), remove the pasta from the water.
In a large bowl while the pasta and chicken are still warm, add the dressing and toss. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator until chilled. Optional: If you'd like, you can move the chicken and pasta to a ziplock gallon sized bag to chill in the fridge for a more even marinade.
Marinate chicken & pasta in the fridge overnight, or for a few hours until chilled.
Toast the sliced almonds in a dry pan, remove from pan.
In a large bowl add the marinaded pasta and chicken and all the other salad ingredients.
Toss with the salad dressing and serve.

Recipe Notes

* It's important to under cook the pasta. It will continue to cook a little more in the marinade.
The spinach will start to wilt once the salad is mixed with the dressing, so you can add the spinach in small batches if serving this salad for a shower or party that is an open house style.