Light and refreshing Creamy Chicken Pasta with fresh zippy summer veggies and a tangy, Greek yogurt dressing is marvelously easy and is a zesty, healthier pasta salad recipe. Perfect as a side dish to any gathering or as a main dish for those times you’re craving a refreshing chilled pasta experience.
I’m about to make one of your Top 5 Dreams come true…ready?
This is how we turn our favorite summer side dish – that’s correct: pasta salad – into an entrée. Mic drop, boomity BOOM, we have arrived!!
Okay, that may have been a projection, as my dream came true with this recipe, because there hasn’t ever been a time in recorded history that I’ve eaten pasta salad and I haven’t wanted to eat it in bulk as a main dish.
For instance, that Italian Pasta Salad recipe I showed you recently? I applied this very concept to that dish as well!
Nevertheless. If you’d love to keep this a side dish, get it! If you sometimes need to blow your carb count out of the water…here’s your gateway, m’dear!
Let’s chat about these simple pasta salad ingredients!
Chicken Pasta Salad Ingredients:
Pasta: Use any pasta shape you like! I just find bow ties (known as farfalle pasta) to be cute and fun, so that’s what I went with. Macaroni noodles, spirals, shells…all great options. I go with gluten-free brown rice farfalle, but feel free to use regular noodles if you aren’t gluten-free.
Chicken: Use leftover grilled chicken, rotisserie chicken, or pre-cooked chicken of choice. For this particular recipe, I used leftover Smoked Chicken Thighs.
Vegetables: Corn, green peas, red pepper, green onion, red onion, fresh basil. The combination of these veggies yield a sweet, tangy, delicious pasta salad with plenty of texture and variety of flavor.
Dressing: Greek yogurt, avocado oil (skip for lower fat), lemon juice, fresh garlic, a touch of pure maple syrup, and sea salt. This is such a simple, winning combination for any pasta salad, and I love it in this particular recipe. Creamy, tangy, sweet, it allows the pasta salad to come together with amazing flavor and allows the flavor of the add ins to shine through.
How to Make Chicken Pasta Salad:
Cook the pasta according to the instructions on the package. Once the pasta has finished cooking, immediately strain it into a colander and rinse well with cold water. This will cool it off quickly and ensure the pasta doesn’t continue cooking and softening.
While the pasta is cooking, you can prepare the dressing and chop the veggies. If using frozen peas, run hot water over them or thaw them before using.
Stir the ingredients for the dressing in a mixing bowl until well-combined.
Add all of the ingredients for the pasta salad to the mixing bowl and toss well until combined. Taste the pasta salad for flavor and add more sea salt and/or lemon juice to taste.
Refrigerate until ready to use.
Note: the sauce will thicken up as the pasta salad chills. The chicken pasta salad will also become more flavorful as it sits, so if you can, make it at least 4 hours in advance (up to a few days!)
This recipe saves well, tastes even better the few days following prep, and is just loved by all!
Recipe Adaptations:
- Use mayonnaise instead of Greek yogurt for the dressing.
- Swap the lemon juice for rice vinegar.
- Incorporate your favorite veggies – cherry tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, olives, jalapeno, edamame, artichoke hearts, etc. are great options.
More Pasta Salad Recipes:
Entrée pasta salad, here we GO!
Ingredients
- 12 ounces gluten-free pasta noodles, I use brown rice bow tie noodles
- 2 cups cooked chicken, chopped
- ⅔ cup corn
- ⅔ cup green peas
- ⅔ cup red pepper
- ⅓ cup red onion, finely chopped
- 3 stalks green onion, chopped
- ¼ cup fresh basil, chopped
Dressing:
- ⅔ cup Greek yogurt
- 3 Tbsp avocado oil
- ¼ cup lemon juice or rice vinegar
- 1 large clove garlic, minced
- 2 tsp pure maple syrup, optional
- ¾ tsp sea salt, to taste
Instructions
- Cook the pasta according to the instructions on the package. Once the pasta has finished cooking, immediately strain it into a colander and rinse well with cold water. This will cool it off quickly and ensure the pasta doesn’t continue cooking and softening.
- While the pasta is cooking, you can prepare the dressing and chop the veggies. If using frozen peas, run hot water over them or thaw them before using.
- Stir the ingredients for the dressing in a mixing bowl until well-combined.
- Add all of the ingredients for the pasta salad to the mixing bowl and toss well until combined. Taste the pasta salad for flavor and add more sea salt and/or lemon juice to taste.
- Refrigerate until ready to use.
- Note: the sauce will thicken up as the pasta salad chills. The chicken pasta salad will also become more flavorful as it sits, so if you can, make it at least 4 hours in advance (up to a few days!)
Nutrition
Sally
Thursday 14th of July 2022
Deeelicious! Made with dairy free plain yogurt. Sampling it to see if there's anything else I want to add, but I think we'll just sample it gone. Yum.
Julia
Wednesday 20th of July 2022
So thrilled you enjoy it, Sally!