Daily Meal Journal

Chicken Pasta Salad

Chicken pasta salad combines two lunch staples into one salad. This picnic recipe is studded with sweet grapes, crunchy almonds, and tender rotisserie chicken.

By Leah Perez   Published: Mar 30, 2023

Jump to Recipe
Chicken Pasta Salad
Yields:
8 - 10 serving(s)
Prep Time:
20 mins
Total Time:
50 mins

This chicken pasta salad combines two iconic deli lunches—pasta salads and Ree Drummond's oh so creamy chicken salad–to make the perfect chilled picnic side dish. Filled with shreds of delicious (and convenient!) rotisserie chicken, crisp vegetables, and pasta, this dish will be welcome at any cookout, barbecue, or in a lunch box! Serve it on butter lettuce leaves for an elegant presentation, or just scoop it onto your plate and dive right in!

Similar to chicken salad, this pasta salad version has all the classic ingredients such as chicken, celery, grapes, and fresh herbs. The dressing, made from yogurt and mayonnaise, is the perfect creamy binder for the whole dish. The finishing garnish of toasted almonds gives this tender salad a nice crunch.

Absolutely! Once the pasta is done boiling, drain it, then rinse it with cold water. This helps stop the cooking process so the pasta doesn't become mushy, but it also helps rinse away the starchy film so the pasta doesn't stick together in clumps.

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Step 1
    Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook for one minute longer than package directions. Drain, rinse with cold water, and let cool.
  2. Step 2
    In a large bowl, combine the yogurt, mayonnaise, mustard, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and cayenne. Fold in the pasta, chicken, celery, green onion, grapes, parsley, and dill. Refrigerate until ready to eat.
  3. Step 3
    Sprinkle the salad with almonds before serving on butter lettuce, if you like.