Chicken Pasta Salad for summer barbecues or light lunch. Grilled Chicken, Pasta and veggies tossed in a refreshing Lemon-Herb Dressing is so delicious and filled with goodness.
Does Chicken Pasta Salad sound like summer to you? Grilled Chicken, your favourite pasta, fresh crunchy vegetables and tangy lemon herb dressing. You need this salad all through the summer. Grilled Chicken instead of some boring flavourless cooked chicken makes this Pasta salad so good. This summer essential salad is one of our favourites.
One of the few things I love about summer is you can have chilled stuff right out of the fridge. Ice cream, popsicles and what not. Add this Chicken Pasta Salad to your list as well. Because you can make a big bowl of this salad and refrigerate it. It tastes great when it is chilled.
Ingredients
This Salad has tones of texture that comes from the different ingredients.
Chicken: I like to use chopped grilled chicken for extra flavour. You can also use any leftover cooked chicken or store-bought chicken instead)
Pasta: Offcourse there will be pasta in a pasta salad. My preference is either fusilli as these hold the dressing really well. But again it is up to you and you can substitute with any kinds of pasta of your choice.
Vegetable: Cucumber, Onion, Tomatoes and Peppers. Cut them into bite-sized pieces. You can also add baby spinach or Arugula.
Lemon herb dressing
A good dressing is what gives life to a salad. This lemon herb dressing is one of my go-to salad dressing recipes because most of the ingredients are always available. It takes just about 5 mins to make this. Good quality Olive oil, dijon mustard, red wine vinegar, garlic, sugar, pepper and lemon juice. Put everything in a jar, seal it tightly and shake vigorously. The oil will start to emulsify and make the mixture creamy.
You can keep the dressing for up to a week in the refrigerator.
A perfect salad to make for a crowd. Prep the veggies, cook the pasta and make the dressing ahead. If you are going to serve the salad within a few hours then mix the dressing and incorporates. But if you are planning to make a day ahead then it is better to mix the dressing before serving.
Chicken Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups Pasta
- 2 Chicken Breast
- ½ teaspoon garlic Powder
- ½ teaspoon Paprika
- Salt to taste
- 1 Cucumber
- 200 grams Cherry Tomatoes
- 1 large Red Onion
- 1 Red bell pepper
- 1 Green Bell Pepper
For Lemon Herb Dressing
- ½ cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 2 tablespoon Red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon Lemon Juice
- ½ teaspoon Dijon Mustard
- 1 tablespoon Sugar
- 2 teaspoon Italian Herbs
- 1 large Garlic Clove Minced
- Salt to taste
- ½ teaspoon Pepper
Instructions
- In a jar add all the ingredients mentioned under salad dressing. Close the lid and shake well until everything is mixed well. The dressing should look creamy.
- To make grilled chicken, Pound chicken to even thickness using a meat tenderiser. Season it with salt, paprika and garlic powder. Massage well.
- Cook seasoned chicken in a grill pan 4-5 minutes each side. Then cover with an aluminium foil and let it rest for 5-6 minutes. Then cut into small chunks.
- While chicken is resting, in a big salad bowl add cooked pasta, cucumber, bell peppers, onions, tomatoes.
- Add cooked chicken pieces to the bowl. Pour in the salad dressing as per taste and toss everything well.
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