Name: Chinese Chicken Pasta Salad
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 20 min
Yield: 4
Ingredients: 1/2 cup Soy Vay Toasted Sesame Dressing; 2 tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar; 1 cup shredded carrots; 6 ounces snow peas (cut into bite-sized pieces); 1 cucumber (sliced very thin); 4 green onions (sliced); 12 ounces Barilla®Pronto™ pasta; 2 tablespoons soy sauce; 3/4 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts (cut into bite-sized pieces)

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Safeway, Inc. for IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine.

Surprise everyone at your next BBQ with this fun and easy Chinese Chicken Pasta Salad!

How far do you live from the grocery store? I am lucky enough to live only four blocks from our neighborhood Safeway, so you can imagine how often I’m there. While I do like to plan a list and shop for the week ahead, I inevitably forget ingredients, run out of milk, or get a last minute inspiration for a recipe. There are times when I go to the store three times in one day! Since I’m at Safeway so often, the employees know me, I know where everything is, and I notice when new items show up. It’s especially easy to notice new items because there are these handy signs pointing them out!

Recently, I went looking for four specific new items to try out. It was fun to take my son on a little scavenger hunt to find them all. Here’s what we were on the lookout for:

Barilla® Pronto™ Pasta – Cooks right in the skillet. No boiling a pot of water or draining the cooked pasta! (found in the pasta section)

Soy Vay Toasted Sesame Dressing & Sauce – Top your salad with the flavor of toasted sesame oil, ginger, and citrus! (found with the salad dressings)

KOOL-AID Easy Mix Liquid and COUNTRY TIME Lemonade Starter – All you need to add is water to enjoy these presweetened, liquid drink mixes! (found in the bottled juice aisle)

Silk® Vanilla Almond Creamer – Add some creamy, nutty, vanilla flavor to your coffee with this dairy-free creamer. (found in the refrigerated dairy section)

While I was shopping, I picked up a few other ingredients I would need to make this easy Chinese Chicken Pasta Salad, and I’ll get to that recipe in a moment.

If you are a regular here, you probably know that I make an early dinner for my boys and then another dinner for my husband and myself a little later. This day was no different, so I treated the kids to a cheesy pasta and meatballs dinner with pink lemonade on the side. I used the Barilla® Pronto™ pasta, which goes right in the pan with cold water. I simmered it for about 15 minutes, and it was done! No draining needed!

I stirred in a little olive oil, sour cream, mozzarella cheese, and added heated frozen meatballs. The kids loved it, especially with the COUNTRY TIME lemonade on the side. (I love the lemonade starter by the way because you can make it one glass at a time, and you can make it as strong or weak as you like!)

Once the kids were fed, I turned my attention to the pasta salad. I actually used Barilla® gluten-free pasta in this recipe, but of course the Barilla® Pronto™ pasta would be perfect too. This salad is very simple to make thanks to the new Soy Vay sesame dressing. All you need to do is toss your dressing with cooked chicken and pasta, chopped cucumber, carrots, green onions, and snow peas. I added a little rice vinegar for a burst of tanginess, and voila! Dinner was done! This would be a fun and different salad to bring to a BBQ instead of plain old pasta salad.

Chinese Chicken Pasta Salad

Prep Time

15 minutes

Cook Time

20 minutes

Servings

Ingredients

1/2 cup Soy Vay Toasted Sesame Dressing
2 tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar
1 cup shredded carrots
6 ounces snow peas cut into bite-sized pieces
1 cucumber sliced very thin
4 green onions sliced
12 ounces Barilla®Pronto™ pasta
2 tablespoons soy sauce
3/4 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into bite-sized pieces