Sesame Chicken Pasta Salad

• Last week I was asked to bring a pasta salad to the RS dinner. I wanted to try something new so I looked online and found this great recipe on allrecipe.com. Once prepared I ate a small bowl and I was hooked. I decided to make it again last night to blog about it. Both K & C agree, it's quite tasty. Now I have a confession to make...I do not eat leftovers. But I broke this rule for lunch and had some of this dish. It was so amazing. I love how the flavors come alive and can't wait for you to try it.

Recipe:

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• 1 (12 ounce) package rotelle pasta
• 1/4 cup sesame seeds
• 1/4 cup EVOO
• 3/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup white wine vinegar
• 3 1/2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 cups cubed, cooked chicken
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped green onion
• 4 cups torn fresh spinach leaves

I used rotelle pasta but feel free to use your favorite pasta for this dish. Bring to boil a pot of lightly salted water. Add pasta. Cook pasta and drain when done. Set aside in a bowl.

While cooking the pasta I made the sauce. This recipe is great because you can make everything at the same time.

Note: If you are using frozen chicken breast, now would be the time to defrost them.

Heat olive oil in a pan. Once oil is warm pour in the sesame seeds and cook on medium-high heat. You will want to stir the sesame seeds until they are golden brown (approx. 3 minutes).

Once the seeds are toasted, take off the heat. Add soy sauce, white wine vinegar and sugar. Caution: Be careful when adding the soy sauce to the pan.  The oil and seeds will bubble up. Pour in the soy sauce slowly! I didn't realize this when I first made this recipe, boy was I surprised haha! Put in a heat safe container and put aside.

So, I forgot to take pictures of the chicken...opps! Though I did get a shot of this lovely pan with oil heating in it...

Beautimous right? Haha. Well, I used three defrosted chicken tenders for this recipe. I placed the chicken in the pan once the oil was hot. Cooked on medium-high heat until cooked all the way through. While the chicken was cooking, I seasoned it with sea salt and a little bit of garlic salt for flavor. Once fully cooked, I placed it on a cutting bord and cut into small cubes.

Mix the pasta, 1 Cup of the soy sauce mixture and chicken in a large bowl. Cover and place in the refrigerator for 2+ hours. This is the best part because you can run errands or watch a few episodes of Vampire Diaries and the pasta salad is marinating to perfection. The noodles and chicken are soaking in that tangy sauce and you don't have to do a thing:-)

When you are ready to serve the salad add the green onions, parsley and spinach to the large bowl. Add more of the soy sauce mixture for flavor. It's ready to be devoured!

By far, my favorite pasta salad dish. It's nice, chilled and infused with yumminess, you really can't go wrong! Enjoy!