Chicken Noodle Salad – Making Friends with Cold Spaghetti

The great American philosopher, Homer Simpson, once said, "You don't make friends with salad." This cold, spicy, and addictively delicious chicken noodle salad might be the exception. You bring a big bowl of this to the next big cookout, and you're going to make all sorts of friends. The only people who might not be huge fans are the folks who brought regular pasta salads, in which case the best you can hope for is frenemies.

While I also love more traditional pasta salads, there's just something extra special about this combination of tastes, and textures, as well as the always exciting aspect of spicy food served cold. Besides that, this recipe is a perfect catchall for all those summer vegetables we're supposed to be eating more of. No matter what you add, if you can make this ahead, it will always come out a little better, since the noodles and chicken will have time to soak up all that flavorful dressing.

As I mentioned, this salad usually gets made because you have some possibly dry leftover grilled chicken around, or other meat for that matter, but if you do want to poach some like I did here, I would watch this video for the proper technique. Or, in a pinch, just pick up a rotisserie chicken from the store. Regardless of what you use, I really do hope you give this a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 4 large portions:

• 8 ounces dry spaghetti, cooked al dente, rinsed in cold water, and drained
• 1 large cooked chicken breast, shredded
• 1 cup thinly grated carrots
• 1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
• 4 green onions, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup chopped roasted salted peanuts
• 1 cup packed mixture of chopped basil, mint, and cilantro
• For the dressing (all amounts here are to taste, so add more if you want): 
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed 
• 1/2 cup seasoned rice vinegar 
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar 
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce 
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce 
• 1 tablespoon sriracha 
• 1 tablespoon hoisin 
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
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