Sesame Chicken Pasta Salad

I'm giving 4 stars because top of recipe says 20 minute prep, 10 min cook and ready in 30. I put this together exactly as written (used rotisserie chicken) thinking it was a warm salad. I purchased all the ingredients today and I wouldn't call it inexpensive. When I realized it needed 6 hours refrigeration it was too late. Served it warm and my 16 year old loved it. He said it was like Noodles & Co., a favorite of ours. Next time I will probably add a generous dash of ginger and garlic to the dressing. My husband and I are looking forward to the cold version tomorrow.

Wonderful flavor. I also added grated ginger, which I though I had seen in the recipe earlier but when I looked at it on my app it was gone. I as well, added snap peas and mini chopped sweet bell peppers and doubled the chicken. The recipe in the end had alot of liquid so next time I will cut back to not have so much, but it could be used as a marinade after!

I gave the original recipe as written 3 stars; but 4 stars with adjustments and additions I made to “jazz” up the salad. I boiled tri-colored rotini pasta in salted water. Chopped up some leftover rotisserie chicken and set aside. For the dressing, I used 3T low-sodium soy sauce, 2T sugar and 3T white wine vinegar. I seasoned the dressing with Hawaiian sea salt, black pepper and some fresh grated ginger. I also put about 1T of toasted sesame seeds to the dressing. Instead of veg/canola oil I used 2 T of sesame oil for flavor; and, fresh cilantro in place of parsley for another layer of flavor. Once I drained the pasta, I poured half of the dressing over it and chilled in the refrigerator for 4 hours. I tossed in fresh baby spinach, chicken and the remainder of the dressing. This needed some color and texture so I added sugar snap peas, carrots, julienned, and cherry tomatoes, quartered. I garnished with green onions, sliced, more cilantro and a generous sprinkle of sesame seeds. This was the most delicious and hearty pasta salad-perfect for a hot summer meal! The dressing has the right amount of soy sauce, sugar and vinegar-not too sweet or too tart. The pasta soaked up the dressing giving it lots of flavor. It’s a very colorful salad full of chicken, greens, vegetables and fresh herbs. The addition of cilantro, ginger and sesame oil gave this the “Asian” flavor I wanted in the salad.

Bf said he would like this better with Italian dressing. I thought that it needed more color--when all the pasta and veggies are added, it's just white and green. So I added some tomatoes for color, and tossed in sugar snap peas and some parmesan cheese just for the heck of it. Bf also decided he wanted to add pepperoni to the salad. We didn't have any defrosted, but we did have some crumbled bacon and that seemed to satisfy him. It makes a ton, and I normally wouldn't have made the full recipe but I have a lot of spinach and I had the requisite amount of cooked chicken already. Not bad, but bf is only willing to try it again with major modifications. Thanks for the recipe!