Chicken Salad with Pasta and Dried Cherries

Chicken Salad with Pasta is inspired by D'Amico & Sons Chicken and Dried Cherry salad.  Chunks of oven roasted chicken breast, rotini pasta, tart dried cherries, smoked almonds, celery, and onion; all tossed in a poppyseed dressing, is a salad you will want to eat all summer long!  Use your deli's rotisserie chicken or leftovers from Sunday's Spatchcock Chicken Dinner and this recipe comes together in under 20 minutes!

Chicken Salad with Pasta as Part of This Week's Meal Plan for Two!

Chicken recipes are a favorite at our table. I have created a week of meals that includes this Chicken Salad with Pasta using the Spatchcock Chicken Sunday Supper left overs.

Sunday Dinner:   Grill a Spatchcock Chicken. A reminder to ask your grocery meat counter to spatchcock (remove the back bone) from the whole roasting chicken.   They are happy to do this.  

If you want to try and do this yourself check out the video found in the Spatchcock Chicken recipe card.

Monday:  Make this Chicken Salad with Pasta recipe using the left-over Spatchcock Chicken.

Wednesday:  Picnic Perfect Pesto Chicken Salad using the last of the Spatchcock Chicken from Sunday's dinner.

Chicken Salad with Pasta…Recipe Inspiration

This recipe is inspired by a casual neighborhood café.  D'Amico & Sons offers flavorful and fresh Italian Pasta & Flatbreads, house-made salads and soups. 

At least 20 years ago, when I was still working at General Mills, D'Amico & Son's opened a kiosk at the headquarters.  One of my favorite lunches was and still is their Chicken and Dried Cherry Salad served with a side of baguette slices. Since leaving General Mills, I would visit the Wayzata location, which sadly closed in March of 2022.

Craving this salad, as the summer temperatures in Minneapolis rose, I wanted to try and recreate this salad. 

Chicken Salad with Pasta Ingredients and Possible Substitutes

• Oven Roasted Chicken Breast: Use your deli's rotisserie chicken or leftovers from Sunday's Spatchcock Chicken Dinner and this recipe comes together in under 20 minutes!
•  Rotini Pasta: If you are having difficulty tracking down this specialty pasta, bow- tie pasta also works well.
• Dried Cherries: Look for tart dried cherries.  Another option is to use dried cranberries.  There are dried cranberries that are cherry flavored that would work too.
• White Onion: Based on conventional wisdom, white onions are milder and crisper than yellow, which is why you might want to use them in this salad. Yellow would be the next choice.
• Smoked Almonds: I love the smoky flavor these almonds add to the pasta salad.  Feel free to substitute any roasted almond.  I have also used honey roasted almonds and was pleased with the results.
• Celery: If you don't have celery on hand, you can try fennel or fresh chives as a celery substitute

Mistakes To Avoid When Making Pasta Salad

1. Not using the right size and shape of pasta. For This recipe the rotini is preferred., the shape allows the right amount of salad dressing to cling to each noodle and the tender-firm bite of the cooked pasta compliments the size and texture of the whole almonds and chunks of chicken.   If in a pinch you could use bow-tie pasta. 

2. Overcooking or undercooking the pasta. Follow the directions on the package and cook until the pasta is al dente (WHAT IS THAT?).  The best way is to taste the pasta, testing it for desired doneness.

3.  Not salting the pasta water. As Samin Nosrat, author of Salt, Fat, Acid Heat tells us to "Salt pasta water as early as possible to allow salt to dissolve and diffuse evenly into the food."  She states that cooking food in salted water is one of the simplest ways to season from within.  So please, don't forget to salt the pasta water!

Rate and Comment!

Lastly, if you make the Chicken Salad with Pasta, be sure to leave a comment and give this recipe a rating! 

And of course, if you do make this recipe, don't forget to tag us on Instagram.  @Ourtable4_2 or use #OurTable42. 

Looking through all the photos is a daily highlight!