Chicken bow tie pasta salad is the perfect summer salad! It combines so many delicious ingredients with the crunch of cashews and creamy coleslaw dressing.
I'm all about summer parties with their spread of fresh fruit (bring on the watermelon!), lighter appetizers (you've gotta try this easy mango salsa), and all the salads. Along with my favorite strawberry spinach salad with balsamic poppy seed dressing (holy candied pecans) and easy Asian ramen salad, I love making chicken bow tie pasta salad with grapes and cashews.
I also love making cheesy pigs in a blanket but they're more about feeding my mouth than a crowd. What is it about those things? They're like crack, I swear.
One of the best thing about this bow tie chicken pasta salad is how many people it serves. If it's a side dish, which for us it usually is, I think it easily serves 12 people. As a main dish, it would still probably serve at least 8.
This recipe for chicken bow tie pasta salad is also super easy to make, especially if you use leftover grilled chicken or rotisserie chicken. Bow tie pasta salad doubles well and keeps in the fridge for three or four days.
Oh, and when serving leftovers, sprinkle on a few extra cashews as those do get a bitsoft after a day or so. But yay for extra cashews!
Most every recipe for chicken bow tie pasta salad calls for mandarin oranges. While I love fresh clementines, I can't do canned mandarin oranges so I generally leave them out. But that's what's awesome about this bow tie pasta salad—you can tweak it however you'd like!
You can leave out the cashews for nut allergies or the pineapple chunks for those crazy people who don't like the heavenly fruit. Or in my case you can nearly double the cashews.
When preparing this pasta salad recipe, I also take it a little easy on the coleslaw dressing and rarely use an entire bottle. But it all depends on how creamy you like your chicken bow tie pasta salad.
RECIPE
Chicken Bow Tie Pasta Salad with Grapes and Cashews
Chicken bow tie pasta salad is the perfect summer salad! It combines so many delicious ingredients with the crunch of cashews and creamy coleslaw dressing.
Ingredients
- 1 (16-oz) package bow tie pasta
- 2 cups cooked, diced chicken
- 1 cup sliced celery
- 1 (15-oz) can mandarin oranges in light syrup, drained
- 1 (20-oz) can pineapple tidbits in juice, drained
- 2 cups red grapes (whole or halved)
- 3 green onions, chopped
- 1 (16-oz) bottle coleslaw dressing
- 1 (6-oz) package craisins
- 1 cup cashews, halves & pieces
Instructions
- Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and rinse with cold water to chill.
- Combine pasta, chicken, celery, mandarin oranges, pineapple tidbits, grapes, green onions, and coleslaw dressing in a large bowl. Toss to coat evenly.
- Chill at least an hour. Add craisins and cashews before serving. Garnish with more cashews.
Notes
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 423Total Fat: 12gSaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 3gCholesterol: 36mgSodium: 457mgCarbohydrates: 60gFiber: 4gSugar: 34gProtein: 17g
Left over recipient
Yum! Yum! And Yum!
Emily
Don't you men "leftover recipient"? Unless, of course, you're actually the leftover and not the salad... ;)
Left over recipient
Don't you mean "mean"? ;)
Emily
Nice catch. Serves me right for not proof reading my comment. ;)
evonne
Now this is a recipe I am definitely going to try, as soon as I figure out what coleslaw dressing is.
Emily
You find it in the salad dressing aisle. You can buy it by the bottle. ;)
Kristina P.
This is my official request for a BBQ. :)
I LOVE chicken salad.
Emily
And this one is so good! (Official request noted. We shall fulfill it this summer.)
Erin O.
YUM! I'm SO making this for our Mother's Day BBQ!
Emily
Hopefully your family will love it as much as I do! :)
christina
do you drain the oranges and pineapple? in syrup or juice?
Emily Hill
Yes, you do. Thanks for catching that. I've updated the recipe!
camila
This pasta salad is out of this world amazing!! Summer vibes over here!! Love it!
Emily Hill
You're totally right about the summer vibes!
Shadi
Yummy! This salad has everything that I love! It's perfect for entertaining and I bet everyone loves it!
Emily Hill
Every does love it and it has so many yummy things in it!
Tisha
Definitely a great summer salad, all those flavors in it!!! YUM
Emily Hill
One of the best summer salads and so easy!
Danielle
I love this combination of ingredients! Looks so tasty!
Emily Hill
It's super delicious!
Sara
This sounds like a great combination of flavors. Grapes in pasta salad would be awesome, I have to try that!!
Emily Hill
They really add a nice flavor!
Kim - Today's Creative Life
so many textures, and flavors! Yum!
Emily Hill
That's what I love most about it!
Beth K
This looks delicious! I love pasta salad!
Emily Hill
Pasta salad is definitely one of my favorite salads!
Sabrina
These look like such disparate elements but I can totally taste the crunchy sweet combination right now and it's excellent! Looking forward to trying this!
Emily Hill
It's that crunchy sweet creamy combo that's so yummy!
Jamielyn
This looks so yummy! Love the addition of the mandarin oranges and cashews!
Emily Hill
I usually leave out the mandarin oranges and double the cashews. ;)
Kristyn Merkley
This Pasta Salad looks so tasty!
Emily Hill
It's ridiculously good!
Megan Clark
I absolutely HATE raw celery. Like cooked and inside stuffing etc is fine, but in chinese food aldente, raw, or in certain things where its crunchy and stringy, uhg I hate it. Is there a sub or will i do harm to recipe leaving it out?
Emily Hill
You can totally leave it out!
Rita
I swapped out the celery with apple. Chopped them the same size size and they were delicious...
Emily Hill
That sounds like a yummy tweak!