Perfect for warm-weather days!
Pasta dishes are usually had when you’re craving something indulgent & filling. They’re also super easy to cook – a delicious sauce, pasta of your choice, veggies or pieces of meat and hey presto (or should we say hey pesto 😉)! A yummy, filling meal in under an hour. And a pasta salad? They make satisfying your pasta cravings a lot quicker.
Especially perfect for sunny days, this cool salad can be made in big batches and stored for a few days. Too lazy to make a large meal? Solution: Pasta salad. Too busy to be mindful of what you’re putting together for dinner? Pasta…you get it.
Pasta salad recipes aren’t complex. It’s as easy as boiling the pasta, adding in salad greens, some protein and a yummy dressing. In this recipe, we make a super-easy chicken pasta salad that is life-saving on busy or lazy days.
What’s in this Chicken Pasta Salad?
This recipe makes use of most items that you may already have in your kitchen.
- Leftover, boneless chicken (we’re using chicken breasts here, but you can use any cut)
- Bell pepper
- Olives
- Tomatoes (we prefer cherry tomatoes)
- Salt, pepper, oregano…any spice & herb of your choice
- Your favourite cheese
- And an easy, delicious salad dressing (we’ll get to this, in a bit)
The only real cooking you would need to do here is to boil the pasta (and cool it immediately). We have added in the instructions to lightly marinate & cook the chicken as well, but you could just boil the chicken and add it to the salad. The salad dressing would then add to most of the flavour of the meat.
Don’t have leftover chicken and don’t want to do any prep work? Go for our Chicken Mini Bites – small, juicy, and cut from the breast. Or our strips of Chicken Tenders, from the tenderloin.
Want to try a seafood pasta salad? Our recommended seafood choices would be Boneless Fish Cubes and our cleaned & deveined prawns.
Now, onto the dressing!
The easiest salad dressing for pasta salads:
Or for any salad, for that matter.
Here’s the solid foundation for any dressing – oil, spices, herbs, something tangy (vinegar, mustard, lime juice, orange juice….), something sweet (sugar, honey, caramel…)
Optional ingredient: something creamy (cream cheese, mayonnaise, yoghurt…)
And so, here’s what our easy dressing consists of olive oil, vinegar, honey, minced garlic, red pepper flakes, salt & pepper. That’s it! You could add in a creamy ingredient, we skipped it so that this pasta salad can be stored for longer/will be safe if not kept in the fridge.
Pro tip: always put your salad dressing in last & coat the salad ingredients well.
If you try this recipe, do share pictures with us on Instagram and tag @licious_foods with #MadeWithLicious. We love seeing your recreations!
| Prep Time | 15 minutes |
| Cook Time | 15 minutes |
| Servings |
people
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- 4 in boneless skinless chicken breasts cut thick strips
- 1½ tbsp olive oil
- 4 garlic clove minced
- black pepper grounded
- 350 gm Fusilli Pasta
- 2-3 tbsp fresh thyme chopped
- 2 tbsp Oregano or dried chopped
- 2 cups cherry tomatoes halved
- 1 Yellow Bell Pepper seeds removed thinly sliced
- ½ cup Green Olives sliced
- 1 medium red onion sliced
- ⅓ cup Ground Parmesan Cheese
- salt
- 4 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
- 1 tsp honey
- 1 garlic cloves minced
- red pepper flakes crushed
- salt
- black pepper grounded
Ingredients
For the Salad
For Salad Dressing
|
|
- Take a bowl and add the dressing ingredients. Whisk the ingredients until they are all thoroughly mixed. Keep the salad dressing aside.
- Boil a pot of water and add some salt to it. Add the pasta and cook it as per the instructions on the packet. Drain the pasta and then rinse it with cold water. Transfer the pasta to a large mixing bowl.
- Take a bowl and add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to it. Then add garlic, oregano, thyme, salt and pepper. Add the chicken strips to the bowl and mix everything together. Take a pan and heat some oil in it. Add the coated chicken strips and cook them for 6-8 minutes until they are cooked and turn golden.
- Add the cooked chicken to the pasta bowl. Then add the onions, cherry tomatoes, olives, parmesan cheese, pepper and salt. Then add the salad dressing and mix the ingredients.
Recipe Tip
If you don’t have the ingredients to prepare the salad dressing then you can add the Chunky Continental Chicken Spread from Licious.
Share your version of this recipe
Do you make Chicken Pasta Salad at home? What ingredients do you use? Share your version with us! In the meanwhile, you can check our other salad recipes here.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which pasta can I use if Fusilli Pasta is not available?
You can make this salad with penne pasta if fusilli pasta is not available.
Can I store the leftover Chicken Pasta Salad?
Yes. You can refrigerate the leftover Chicken Pasta salad in an airtight container for 4-5 days.